Definition of "original"

The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick‎

The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, […].

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎

I have a great mind to be in Print; but above all, I would fain be an Original, and that is a true Comical Thought: When all the Learned Men in the World are but Tranſlators, is it not a Pleaſant Jeſt, that you ſhould ſtrive to be an Original! You ſhould have obſerved your Time, and have come into the World with the Ancient Greeks for that purpoſe; for the Latines themſelves are but Copies.

1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 5

Ahmad (1969) studied the personality differences among middle school girls identified as originals and unoriginals on the Minnesota's test of creative thinking.

1975, The Educational Trends, volumes 10-14, page 59

The originals or the creatives were more dominant than the unoriginals or the low creatives.

2010, A. Kusuma, Creativity and Cognitive Styles in Children, page 73

‘Are you an alienist?’ I interrupted. ‘Every doctor should be - a little,’ answered that original, imperturbably.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 201

Fashion Fair will give every section first hand knowledge of the latest originals and 1962-63's exciting trends.

1962, “It's Fashion fair time again”, in Ebony, volume 17, number 11, page 126

One such show was built around the Du Pont spring collection of Paris originals.

1963, National Retail Merchants Association. Sales Promotion Division, The NRMA Sales Promotion Encyclopedia, Vol. II., page 175