Superannuate, verb. (Winchester).—See quot.
c.1840. Mansfield, School Life (1866) 237. Superannuate—a boy who was obliged to leave at Election, owing to his being past eighteen years of age. Founders were not superannuate till they were twenty-five.
Superfine Review, subs. phr.
(literary).—The Saturday Review.
[A coinage of Thackeray's (1860-3)
in The Roundabout Papers.]
Supernaculum, subs. and adv.
(old).—1. See quots. [Garden
Latin: super naculum = on the
nail.] Whence (2) right liquor;
and (3) see quot. 1823.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Pennilesse, G. 2 v. a. Drinking super nagulum, a devise of drinking new come out of Fraunce: which is, after a man hath turned up the bottom of the cup, to drop it on his naile, and make a pearle with that is left; which if it slide, and he cannot make it stand on, by reason ther's too much, he must drinke againe for his penance.
1598. Jonson, Case is Altered, viii. 348. I confess Cupid's carouse, he plays super-negulum with my liquor of life.
1617. Braithwaite, Law of Drinking, 17. They without any difficulty at all can soake and sucke it [Greek: en ton nyn], to a nayle [margin, super-naculum].
1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 1. Bacchus, the god of brewed wine and sugar, grand patron of rob-pots, upsy-freesy tipplers, and super-naculum takers, headwarden of Vintners' Hall, ale-conner.
. . . . Timon [Dyce], 38. I drinke this to thee super naculum.
1630. Taylor, Works, 2, Aaa, 3, r° 1. As when he drinkes out all the totall summe, Gave it the stile of super-*nacullum.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 61. Says, Look, here's super-*naculum.
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Supernaculum, not so much as a Drop left to be poured upon the Thumb-nail, so cleaverly was the Liquor tipt off.
1704. King, Orpheus. Their jests were supernaculum, I snatch'd the rubies from each thumb.
1719. Swift, To Dr. Sheridan, Dec. 14. But I doubt the oraculum is a poor supernaculum.
1746. De Supernaculo Anglorum. 'Est vox hybrida, ex Latina prepositione super et Germano nagel (a nail) composita'; [Nares: which agrees with the account in Pierce Penilesse, and accounts for the nagulum, and negulum].
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Supernaculum. Good liquor, of which there is not even a drop left sufficient to wet one's nail.
1822. Byron, Werner, i. 1. The supernaculum! twenty years of age, if 'tis a day.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Supernaculum. Any article of consumption unusually good—as a superior pinch of snuff, a 'drop of brandy like a nosegay,' or port vintage 1816.
1835. Edin. Rev., lxii. 41. Drinking supernaculum.
d. 1891. Lowell, Eurydice. And empty to each radiant summer A supernaculum of summer.
Superstitious-pie, subs. phr.
(old).—See quot.
c. 1696. B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Superstitious-Pies, Minc'd, or Christmas-Pies, so Nick-nam'd by the Puritans, or Precisians, tho' they can Eat em, but affecting to be singular, make them a Month or six Weeks before Christmas, or the Feast of Christ.
Supouch, subs. (Old Cant).—'An
Hostess or Landlady' (B. E.).
Supper, subs. (venery).—1. The
female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
to give the old
man his supper = to confer the
conjugal embrace; to warm
the old man's supper = to sit
before the fire with petticoats
lifted: Fr. faire petite chapelle.
To set one his supper, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To perform a feat impossible for another to imitate.
