original
    adj 1: preceding all others in time or being as first made or
           performed; "the original inhabitants of the Americas";
           "the book still has its original binding"; "restored the
           house to its original condition"; "the original
           performance of the opera"; "the original cast";
           "retracted his original statement"
    2: (of e.g. information) not secondhand or by way of something
       intermediary; "his work is based on only original, not
       secondary, sources"
    3: being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being
       as first made or thought of; "a truly original approach";
       "with original music"; "an original mind" [ant: unoriginal]
    4: not derived or copied or translated from something else; "the
       play is original; not an adaptation"; "he kept the original
       copy and gave her only a xerox"; "the translation misses much
       of the subtlety of the original French"
    n 1: an original creation (i.e., an audio recording) from which
         copies can be made [syn: master, master copy,
         original]
    2: something that serves as a model or a basis for making
       copies; "this painting is a copy of the original" [syn:
       original, archetype, pilot]

Original \O*rig"i*nal\, n. [Cf. F. original.]
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   1. Origin; commencement; source.
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            It hath it original from much grief.  --Shak.
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            And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
            Their great Original proclaim.        --Addison.
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   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.
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            The Scriptures may be now read in their own
            original.                             --Milton.
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   3. An original thinker or writer; an originator. [R.]
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            Men who are bad at copying, yet are good originals.
                                                  --C. G.
                                                  Leland.
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   4. A person of marked eccentricity. [Colloq.]
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   5. (Zool. & 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.
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Original \O*rig"i*nal\, a. [F. original, L. originalis.]
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   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.
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            His form had yet not lost
            All her original brightness.          --Milton.
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   2. Not copied, imitated, or translated; new; fresh; genuine;
      as, an original thought; an original process; the original
      text of Scripture.
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   3. Having the power to suggest new thoughts or combinations
      of thought; inventive; as, an original genius.
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   4. Before unused or unknown; new; as, a book full of original
      matter.
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   Original sin (Theol.), the first sin of Adam, as related to
      its consequences to his descendants of the human race; --
      called also total depravity. See Calvinism.
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ORIGINAL, contracts, practice, evidence. An authentic instrument of 
something, and which is to serve as a model or example to be copied or 
imitated. It also means first, or not deriving any authority from any other 
source as, original jurisdiction, original writ, original bill, and the 
like. 
     2. Originals are single or duplicate. Single, when there is but one; 
duplicate, when there are two. In the case of printed documents, all the 
impressions are originals, or in the nature of duplicate originals, and any 
copy will be primary evidence. Watson's Case, 2 Stark. R. 130; sed vide 14 
Serg.& Rawle, 200; 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2001. 
     3. When an original document is not evidence at common law, and a copy 
of such original is made evidence by an act of the legislature, the original 
is not, therefore, made admissible evidence by implication. 2 Camp. R. 121,