Exceptional
/ɪkˈsɛp.ʃən.əl/noun
Unusually excellent or notably different from the ordinary.
Did you know?Its ancestor exception was a legal term for a formal objection that excluded a claim from consideration, before exceptional gained its modern positive sense.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kap-
“To grasp, seize, or take”
Classical Latin
Latin
capere
“To take, seize, or capture”
Late Latin
Latin
excipere
“To take out, withdraw, or exclude”
Late Latin
Latin
exceptionalis
“Relating to an exception or exclusion”
14th Century
Old French
exceptionel
“Constituting or relating to an exception”
15th Century
English
exceptional
“Relating to an exception; unusual”
Modern English
English
exceptional
“Unusually good, remarkable, or outside the ordinary”