unoriginal en · 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.
Meanings
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Lacking originality.
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?
1859, John Stuart Mill, “Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual”, in On Liberty, London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], →OCLC, page 117:If you’re a writer, you will write a lot of unoriginal work before you write something original.
2023 February 9, Ted Chiang, “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web”, in The New Yorker: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.
2008, André Brink, Other Lives, Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, “Mirror,” Chapter 8, p. 185, “Stories come from other stories.” “Then there is no originality anywhere.” “Does it matter? Perhaps our very idea of originality is overrated. And unoriginal.”
“[…] Everything in its proper time and season,” he added, with the unoriginal man’s fondness for proverbial philosophy.
1902, William Somerset Maugham, Mrs Craddock:
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(rare) 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 […]
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(obsolete) Without an origin or source.
[I] plung’d in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wilde,
1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 476-477:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more unoriginal | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most unoriginal | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Synonyms
clichéd (lacking originality, referring to things) · uninventive (lacking originality, referring to people) · derivative (lacking originality, referring to things) · uncreative (lacking originality, referring to people) · predictable (lacking originality, referring to things) · stock (lacking originality, referring to things) · slavish (lacking originality, referring to things) · unimaginative (lacking originality, referring to people)
Translations (3)
es sin originalidad (Translations) · es poco original (Translations) · es nada original (Translations)