Entry: non-pareil (adj.)
Definition: Having
no equal; unrivalled, incomparable, peerless, unique. In later use freq. as
postmodifier.
Other: Isn’t this a great word? Pretty clearly of French origin. To my ears, it resounds much more strongly as
a postmodifier now – the usage examples seem strained.
1977 New Yorker 6
June 120/3 McKenna ignored this fashion
and championed his left hand, which is nonpareil.
1818 Amer. Monthly
Mag. 3 181/2 Now for a picture of the
nonpareil De Courcy—this Adonis, Apollo, and Hercules of eighteen.
1645 J. Tombes
Anthropolatria 8 Some magnified Peter,
as nonparil.
The best, though, is:
a1500 Hymnal in R. S. Loomis Medieval Stud. in
Memory G. S. Loomis (1927) 445 To whos
myghty power and nowimparaile, All creaturys owyth humble obeissaunce.
SNOOT score: 3
Page: 33
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
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