peculiar [LME] The earliest senses of peculiar in English include ‘unlike others’ and ‘specific to a person’, with the development ‘strange, odd’ not emerging until the early 17th century. Latin peculium, from which peculiar derives, meant ‘private property’. It came from pecu ‘cattle, farm animals’ also the source of pecuniary [E16th], for ‘wealth in farm animals’ which developed into the sense ‘money’.