original

/euh rij"euh nl/, adj.

1. belonging or pertaining to the origin or beginning of something, or to a thing at its beginning: The book still has its original binding.

2. new; fresh; inventive; novel: an original way of advertising.

3. arising or proceeding independently of anything else: an original view of history.

4. capable of or given to thinking or acting in an independent, creative, or individual manner: an original thinker.

5. created, undertaken, or presented for the first time: to give the original performance of a string quartet.

6. being something from which a copy, a translation, or the like is made: The original document is in Washington.

n.

7. a primary form or type from which varieties are derived.

8. an original work, writing, or the like, as opposed to any copy or imitation: The original of this is in the British Museum.

9. the person or thing represented by a picture, description, etc.: The original is said to have been the painter's own house.

10. a person whose ways of thinking or acting are original: In a field of brilliant technicians he is a true original.

11. Archaic. an eccentric person.

12. Archaic. a source of being; an author or originator.

[1300-50; ME < L originalis (adj.) and ML originale original document (n. use of neut. adj.), equiv. to origin- (see ORIGIN) + -alis -AL¹]

Syn. 1. primary, primordial, primeval, primitive, aboriginal. 7. archetype, pattern, prototype, model.

Ant. 7. copy.

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