peculiar institution
SlaverySlavery
Meaning
1 senses(derogatory, euphemistic, uncountable)Slavery
Origin
"Peculiar" here does not mean strange. It means "peculiar" (particular) to a certain area,"Peculiar" here does not mean strange. It means "peculiar" (particular) to a certain area, in this case the Southern United States.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.