Hello iomomas> How are you? ) No matter how "thin" or original the concept It means that a person is associated with some concept that is not exactly an original idea. The person may have borrowed the idea from someone else, or copied the idea in part from another source. 2) "Thinly" original This means essentially the same thing. The Idea may appear to be an original or new idea, but there are strong possibilities that the idea at least in part, is borrowed or based upon a previous idea. . For example, Picasso's "Cubist" are is "thinly" original. He actuall enlarged upon the early "Mask" portraits of Modigliani. .