unoriginal
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L341955 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English original English unoriginal From un- + original.
- Lacking originality.
“1758, William Hawkins, Tracts in Divinity, Oxford, Volume 2, Letter 12 [on Pope’ translations of Homer], pp. 418-419, Redundancies are as unoriginal as Insipidities, and the Spirit of an Author may be as much overwhelmed in Exuberance on the one Hand, as it evaporates in Frigidity on the other.”
“Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of. They cannot see what it is to do for them: how should they?”
- Not being the first or earliest version of something, not original.
“1894, Joseph Jacobs (editor), More Celtic Fairy Tales, London: David Nutt, Notes and References, “The Leeching of Kayn’s Leg,” p. 232, [This tale] occurs in an MS. of the fifteenth century in an obviously unoriginal form which shows that the story-teller did not appreciate the significance of many features in the folk-tale he was retelling […]”
- Without an origin or source.
“[I] plung’d in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wilde,”
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English original English unoriginal From un- + original.
- A person or work that does not exhibit originality.
“Ahmad (1969) studied the personality differences among middle school girls identified as originals and unoriginals on the Minnesota's test of creative thinking.”
“The originals or the creatives were more dominant than the unoriginals or the low creatives.”