Original \O*rig"i*nal\, n. [Cf. F. original.]

1. Origin; commencement; source.

It hath it original from much grief. --Shak.

And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. --Addison.

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. --Milton.

3. An original thinker or writer; an originator. [R.]

Men who are bad at copying, yet are good originals. --C. G. Leland.

4. A person of marked eccentricity. [Colloq.]

5. (Zo["o]l. & 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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Original \O*rig"i*nal\, a. [F. original, L. originalis.]

1. Pertaining to the origin or beginning; preceding all others; first in order; primitive; primary; pristine; as, the original state of man; the original laws of a country; the original inventor of a process.

His form had yet not lost All her original brightness. --Milton.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)