nonpareil, a. and n.
(nɒnpəˈrɛl)
Forms: 5 nonparaille, 6 -parreille, 6–7 -parel(e, 6–8 -pareill(e, 7 -paril, -parell, -peril(l, -perel, 7, 9 -pariel, 6– non(-)pareil. β. 6 nompareille, 7 -parell, numparell (9 numparel). (See also B. 1 b.)
[a. F. nonpareil, † nompareil: see non- and pareil a. and n.]
A. adj. Having no equal; unequalled, peerless.
| 1477 Caxton Jason 32 b, O right noble and nonparaille Myrro, she is without peer. 1594 Greene & Lodge Looking Gl. G.'s Wks. (Rtldg.) 117 Beauty nonpareil in excellence. 1645 Tombes Anthropol. 8 Some magnified Peter, as non⁓paril. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 204 The most Non-pareille Beauty of the World, Beauteous Knowledge. 1730 (title) A Treatise of Buggs..By John Southall, Maker of the Non⁓pareil Liquor for destroying Buggs and Nits. 1818 Amer. Monthly Mag. III. 181/2 Now for a picture of the non⁓pareil De Courcy—this Adonis, Apollo, and Hercules of eighteen. 1834 Southey Doctor I. 70 A truth which..will be..elucidated in this nonpareil history. 1893 F. Adams New Egypt 211 The great and famous nonpareil champion. |
B. n. 1. A person or thing having no equal; something unique.
| 1593 Nashe Four Lett. Confuted Wks. (Grosart) II. 265 Euermore maist thou be canonized as the Nonparreille of impious epistlers. 1596 Lambarde Peramb. Kent 349 [Name of a ship] Non Pareille. 1599 Broughton's Let. vii. 24 You accompt your selfe the Non parel for knowledge. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 273 Though you were crown'd The non-pareil of beautie. 1612 Capt. Smith Virginia i. Wks. (Arb.) 169 Pocahontas, Powhatans daughter..was the very Nomparell of his kingdome, and at most not past 13 or 14 yeares of age. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man ii. iii. §4. 267 That Tendency which Every Man has to think himself a Non-pareil. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 615 People are apt to think their children nonpareils, the sole object deserving admiration and regard. 1817 M. Edgeworth Ormond xxii, Miss Annaly, who was to have been a non-pareil of an heiress in case of the brother's death, will have but a moderate fortune. 1887 Stedman Vict. Poets (ed. 13) v. 162 ‘The Talking Oak’,..the nonpareil of sustained lyrics in quatrain verse. |
b. In quasi-It. forms
nonpareillo,
-parella.
| 1672 Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal i. (Arb.) 41, I think you'l say this is a non pareillo: I'm sure no body has hit upon it yet. 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 7 To all these Reasons, our Farce-monger might have added another, which is a non pareillo. 1687 Prior & Halifax Hind & P. transv. P.'s Wks. 1892 II. 319 I'le be bold to say, the exactest piece the world ever saw, a non pareillo, I' faith. 1899 Atlantic Monthly June 728/2 A nonparella of all grace and beauty! |
2. Printing. A size of type intermediate between emerald and ruby (in America, between minion and agate).
† Also as
adj. (following the
n.)
= Printed in nonpareil. (
Cf. F.
nonpareille.)
| 1647 Pref. Verses in Lilly Chr. Astrol., Heaven is his book; The Stars both great & smal Are letters Nonperill and Capitall Disperst throughout. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing ii. ¶2 Letter of all Bodies..viz. Pearl, Nonparel, Brevier. 1686 Lond. Gaz. No. 2109/4 The Bible Nonperil, in Twelves. 1825 Hansard Typogr. 382 Ruby..was..originally a Nonpareil with short ascenders and descenders, cast on a smaller body. |
| attrib. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 72 Unless Nonpareil figures can be conveniently had. Ibid. 84 The founders..cast one sized type upon another body: viz. a Nonpareil face on a Minion body, and a Minion on a Nonpareil. |
3. A kind of comfit. (
Cf. F.
nonpareille.)
| 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 250 Certain little Comfits, which in France we call Non-pareil. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 56 Nonpareille, which is nothing but Orrice-Powder cover'd with Sugar. 1747–96 H. Glasse Cookery xxi. 328 Strew different coloured nonpareils over it. 1821 Lamb Elia i. My first play, I remember the waiting at the door..with the cry of nonpareils, an indispensable play-house accompaniment in those days... The fashionable pronunciation of the theatrical fruiteresses then was,..‘Chase..some numparels’..—chase pro chuse. 1843 Pereira Food & Diet 120 Sugar constitutes the base of an almost innumerable variety of hard confectionary, sold under the names of Lozenges, Brilliants, Pipe, Rock, Comfits, Nonpareils. 1862 Francatelli Confectioner 327. |
4. A kind of apple. (
Cf. F.
nonpareille.)
| 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Apple Tree,..Nonpariel. 1761 Phil. Trans. LII. 73 Non-pareil apple-trees. 1783 Johnson in Boswell 18 Apr., Sir, you can no more have nonpareils than you can have grapes. 1821 M. W. Shelley in Dowden Life Shelley (1886) II. 366 He produces something as like Dante as a rotten crab-apple like a fine non⁓pareil. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 190/1 Braddick's nonpareil. Old nonpareil. 1866 Treas. Bot. 945/2 Scarlet Nonpareil. |
| attrib. 1839 Lindley Introd. Bot. ii. xiii. 389 A nonpareil branch 2 feet long. |
5. a. A small beautifully coloured finch of the southern United States,
Cyanospiza (Emberiza) ciris.
b. The rose parrakeet,
Platycerus eximius. (
Cf. F.
nonpareil,
nonpareille.)
| 1758 G. Edwards Gleanings I. 132 The Painted Finch.., more generally known to the curious in London by the name of Nonpareil and Mariposa. 1853 F. R. Goulding Young Marooners xxxvi, A nonpareil, hidden in the branches, sat whistling plaintively to its mate. 1895 Outing XXVI. 70/2 Cane-brakes gay with cardinals and nonpareils. |
6. A kind of wheat.
| 1805 Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 540 The nonpareil is a sort said to be brought into this country from America; it has a bright straw with a brown ear; and the grain is very white. |
7. A name for several beautiful moths.
| 1819 G. Samouelle Entom. Compend. 422 The Nonpareil, Noctua sponsa. 1832 Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 206 The Nonpareil (Œcophora eximia, Stephens). A most beautiful species. 1875 Houghton Brit. Insects 88 The splendid Clifden Nonpareil (Catocala fraxini). |