I was interested to see in an OEDILF workshopping that that Snowy Owl felt it necessary to explain the word "peculiar" that he had used in a limerick. Is it an unusual word in US English?

It's a perfectly normal word in UK English which usually has the meanings he ascribed to it of "strange, odd, unusual". However, it can also mean "belonging to a fashion or time" ("a style peculiar to that region in the 1880s"). It also has the special ecclesiastical meaning of a church exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese in which it lies.

Spelt "Peculier" it has the distinction of being the name of one of Theakston's most famous beers - their legendary "Old Peculier", still brewed in Masham, a dark, strong beer (ABV 5.7%), famous for its rich and complex character.

So, is "peculiar(er)" a peculiarly British word?

I'm usually not a good judge of these kinds of things, what with having been exposed to too many languages over the years, but I know the meaning whereof you type. I've even used it on occasion. It doesn't sound the least bit British to me.

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I looked it up in a number of on-line dictionaries via OneLook. The ecclesiastical meaning Richard mentions is marked "chiefly British", but the other meanings are not marked, so I would assume that the word is not peculiar to the UK.

Southerners in the pre-Civil War U.S. called slavery their 'peculiar institution', a choice of words I always found peculiar. Does anyone know where this phrase comes from or what it was trying to convey?

I don't think it's a British word. I use it and hear it used commonly.

quote:

Originally posted by neveu:
Southerners in the pre-Civil War U.S. called slavery their 'peculiar institution', a choice of words I always found peculiar. Does anyone know where this phrase comes from or what it was trying to convey?

Very interesting question. It seems that John C. Calhoun used the phrase extensively, and my sense is that he originated it. The data I've been able to check verifies that he used it in 1837, and perhaps in 1820 (unclear whether the latter is a quotation); no doubt there were more usages.

Note that Calhoun was using 'peculiar' in the sense 'characteristic of a particular place', which ties into the whole concept of states' rights. Thus, I don't agree with the view that the phrase was a euphemism; that view presupposes modern attitudes towards slavery, not the attitudes of the 1830s.

1837: The peculiar institution of the South — that, on the maintenance of which the very existence of the slaveholding States depends, is pronounced to be sinful and odious, in the sight of God and man; and this with a systematic design of rendering us hateful in the eyes of the world—with a view to a general crusade against us and our institutions.

1820: The truth can no longer be disguised that the peculiar domestic institutions of the Southern States and the consequent direction which that and her soil and climate have given to her industry, has placed them in regard to taxation and appropriations in opposite relations to the majority of the Union; against the danger of which, if there be no protective power in the reserved rights of the States, they must in the end be forced to rebel or submit to having their permanent interests sacrificed.

However, I suspect that the phrase wasn't generally identified with slavery until the later 1840s. Before then it was also used with other meanings, and it seems unlikely that it would have been so used if it were tightly associated with slavery. For example,

... the inhabited territory was subdivided into towns with the unostentatious municipal magistracy of a small number of select-men annually chosen out of the body of the inhabitants, in that manner which still remains among the peculiar institutions of New England.
Laws of Massachusetts, in The North American review, July 1823 at page 83

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Interesting, wordnerd.

Peculiar is not a peculiar word to me.

I can't imagine, Richard, why she defined it. Quite peculiar, if you ask me.