a. [f. L. anōmal-us (see ANOMAL) + -OUS.]
1. With to: Unequal, unconformable, dissimilar, incongruous. arch.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 51. Neutralls and bodies anomalous hereto.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 18. [The stars in the East] appeared and disappeared anomalous to ordinary starres.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., x. 267. These [early missions] … were anomalous to the general feeling of Christians.
2. simply: Unconformable to the common order; deviating from rule, irregular; abnormal.
1655. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I., 137. These things … being anomalous, innovations, and so severely urged, many … separated themselves into factious sidings.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 601. Some anomalous Feavers.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xviii. § 10. Offences of this description may well be called anomalous.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., xi. 347. Peculiar and anomalous in her likes and dislikes.
b. in Nat. Hist.
1655. Lett., in Hartlib, Ref. Commonw. Bees, 22. A third very anomalous Generation … is of a sort of stinging Flies.
1737. P. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Viola, It hath a polypetalous, anomalous Flower, somewhat resembling the papilionaceous Flower.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., viii. (1879), 162. This beautiful and most anomalous structure is adapted to take hold of floating marine animals.
c. in Gram.
1659. B. Walton, Consid. Considered, 263. The following Masorites, finding such anomalous punctuation, left all as they found them.
1706. Phillips, s.v., In Grammar there are four kinds of Anomalous Nouns, viz. Heterogeneal, Heteroclites, Difficients and Redundants.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., ix. 349. The tendency of all linguistic progress is to reduce the number of anomalous forms.
