A misspelling or archaic variant of 'exceptional,' meaning unusual, remarkable, or standing out from what is normal.
This appears to be a variant spelling from earlier English. 'Exceptional' comes from Latin 'exceptio' meaning 'objection' or 'exception,' with the '-al' suffix making it an adjective.
This spelling variant shows how English spelling wasn't standardized until the 19th century—different writers would spell the same word differently, and both could be considered correct!
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