1.Origin; commencement; source. "It hath it original from much grief." "And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim."
2.That which precedes all others of its class; archetype; first copy; hence, an original work of art, manuscript, text, and the like, as distinguished from a copy, translation, etc. "The Scriptures may be now read in their own original."
3.An original thinker or writer; an originator. (R.) "Men who are bad at copying, yet are good originals."
4.A person of marked eccentricity. (Colloq.)
5.(Zool. & Bot.) The natural or wild species from which a domesticated or cultivated variety has been derived; as, the wolf is thought by some to be the original of the dog, the blackthorn the original of the plum.
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