Peculiar People With Peculiar Ideas Over the Years: What Does Peculiar Mean?

What do peculiar people with peculiar ideas have in common? A better question might be how they differ.

What is unique about them? Is being peculiar something that is new and innovative, or is there more to it?

Peculiar appears to be a word that originated in the 15th century, from the Middle English word ‘peculier’ or Latin word ‘peculiaris’ according to the merriam-webster.com dictionary.

The word peculiar has several different meanings. The first refers to “the characteristic of only one person, group, or thing” that makes the person or thing “distinctive”. The second suggests that it is “different from the usual or normal” or is “special, particular, odd, curious, eccentric or queer.”

What do the following people have in common? 

Consider the following quotes about each one of them

William Shakespeare:

“In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French and native roots. His impressive expansion of the English language according to the Oxford English Dictionary, includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace, bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged, heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry, radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany.”

Thomas Edison:

“Thomas Edison was more responsible than any one else for creating the modern world ....  No one did more to shape the physical/cultural makeup of present day civilization.... Accordingly, he was the most influential figure of the millennium...." 

Samuel Hahnemann:

“Homeopathy by today’s standards is not a science since it is a medicine that does not seek to create a science. It remains an art and the attempt to create a scientific basis for it will most likely be fruitless.”

Martin Luther King:

“In the new nation and the new creed of which the King holiday serves as a symbol, all institutions, values, heroes, and symbols that violate the dogma of equality are dethroned and must be eradicated.”

Amelia Earhart:

“How would you like to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic?”

These five names were picked at random for no specific reason other than the fact that at some time during the course of history, each one represented a contemporary figure ahead of his or her time.

A box-maker who only makes boxes and markets them successfully, will probably get rich, at some time. 

Not one of these contemporary figures appears to have gotten rich. Instead, they all seem to have been visionaries of some kind, unique individuals with voices. They were innovative brave souls, heroes and doers. Each one exceeded the boundaries of their day by taking a leapfrog kind of jump over everyone else and heading into the darkness only present in the realm of the unknown.

Indeed, they are peculiar people with peculiar ideas. Such is the nature of contemporary thinkers.

Think outside the box is an open invitation to contemporary thinkers of today who might be regarded as bold, innovative and creative, but definitely thinking outside the boundaries of traditional thinkers. In that regard, they may be geniuses by nature, definitely distinctive and peculiar.