Musings over originality...
"Originality does not mean thinking something that was never thought before; it means putting old ideas together in new ways."
The word Originality has a wealth of meaning behind it. It refers to something which is original i.e. new, different or unusual. Something that has never been seen or heard off before. At the same time it also refers to something that is a result of independent thinking. Thus originality of thought or work is two fold. It can be a completely new idea, theory, machine, system, etc. It can also be a new inference or interpretation of the existing idea or theory. It can be the combination of 2 or more systems/machines to give a new system which helps us solve problems related to the previous systems or those which are completely different. Thus, originality is both: the thinking of new ideas as well as putting together existing ideas to get something different.