In the Church of England, a peculiar is a parish, church, chapel,
or ecclesiastical court exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese in
which it is physically located.There are very few of these left now, but there are still churches that are "royal peculiars": chapels exempt from any jurisdiction but that of the sovereign. The church belongs not to the diocese, like most churches in denominations with bishops, but is the exclusive possession of the crown.
"Peculiar" has a surprising range of meanings, going from this "exclusive or particular to" meaning, all the way to "bizarre", a phenomenon that always causes smirks in church when it's time for the following Bible reading in the King James Version: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Peter ii. 9). The idea is that of a people chosen exclusively by God, but of course that's not what springs immediately to the 21st- century mind! Modern translations opt for things like "God's special possession", "God's own possession", "a
people for God's own possession", "His own special people", etc.
Even more surprising is that "peculiar" started its long semantic journey as a Latin word meaning "cattle": pecu. From this arose a derivative peculium (property), since cattle were private property. The
adjective related to this was peculiaris (relating to private property). So "peculiar"
came to designate things that were a person's private property,
something that belonged to you and no one else. You could say of a
politician that he "had not so much advanced the common wealth
as his own private things and peculiar estate" (that's a quote
from 1548, which just goes to show that some things never change!).
From designating material things such as your possessions, "peculiar"
soon came to be applied also to more abstract qualities and
characteristics that were unique or "peculiar" to one
person or group. And since anything that distinguishes one person
from the rest of humanity usually becomes stigmatized as
strangeness, "peculiar" eventually came to mean downright
odd.
Although languages can manage one word having many different meanings, when one of those meanings is SO different from another, and has negative connotations to boot, it usually results in the less negative meaning falling out of the language. I am therefore hereby going out on a limb and predicting the demise of the "unique to" sense of peculiar. It's already ailing, or the Bible translators wouldn't be tinkering with that verse we saw.
There. People are always asking me to predict what's going to happen with the language. Usually I demur, but now I've done it. Be careful what you ask for!
Although languages can manage one word having many different meanings, when one of those meanings is SO different from another, and has negative connotations to boot, it usually results in the less negative meaning falling out of the language. I am therefore hereby going out on a limb and predicting the demise of the "unique to" sense of peculiar. It's already ailing, or the Bible translators wouldn't be tinkering with that verse we saw.
There. People are always asking me to predict what's going to happen with the language. Usually I demur, but now I've done it. Be careful what you ask for!
Incidentally, another word that came from this same Latin word
for cattle is "pecuniary", because cattle signified wealth
and money.
Please use the buttons in left-hand column to share this post on facebook or twitter, or email the link to a friend.
You
can sign up to have your word of the week delivered directly to your
inbox here.
There’s a famous British ale that originated in Masham in north Yorkshire called Theakston’s Old Peculier (sic). Theakton’s web site has this to say about the name:
ReplyDeleteIn the early years of the modern brewing era, about two hundred years ago, many brewers produced a dark, strong ‘stock’ beer in the winter months, to provide a base amount of fermented beer to add to beers brewed in the rather more volatile months of the summer. Old Peculier probably owes its origins to this. The name pays tribute to the unique ecclesiastical status of Masham as a ‘Court of the Peculier’ and is also a reference to the strong characteristic of the beer. For many years it was affectionately referred to as Yorkshire’s “Lunatic’s Broth.”
Philip Jackman, Orillia, Ontario
The editors of "Voices United" (United Church hymn book published in 1996) didn't mess with Isaac Watts' words in his hymn, "Jesus shall reign wheree'er the sun". He wrote,"Let every creature rise and bring/Peculiar honours to our King".
ReplyDeleteAs a child, I thought that a very peculiar line.
So in Sense and Sensibility, when the Colonel offers the parish on his estate to Edward (without the intervention of a Bishop or something) is that one of these peculiars?
ReplyDeleteI feel that the downward spiral of the word peculiar has to do with it's usage in the vernacular as euphemism. While, I always thought peculiar as "different" or "interesting," polite society will use it instead of "odd." Leading to my new saying, "if you can't say something nice, don't ruin a perfectly good word!"
ReplyDelete