nonpareil
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /nɒnpəˈɹeɪ(l)/
ipa: /nɒm-/
ipa: /ˈnɒnpəɹ(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈnɒnpɹ(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈnɒm-/
ipa: /ˌnɑnpəˈɹɛl/
rhymes: -eɪ
rhymes: -eɪl
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: nonpareils
form: non-pareil
form: nonparella
form: nonpareillo
Etymology: From Late Middle English non-parail (“unparalleled, nonpareil”) [and other forms], from Middle French nonpareille, nonpareil (“unparalleled”) (obsolete), from non- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + pareil (“alike, like, same”). Pareil is derived from Old French pareil, from Late Latin pāriculus (“equal; like; of a number: even”), from Latin pār (“equal; like; of a number: even; suitable”) + -culus (a variant of -ulus (suffix forming diminutives)). Doublet of umpire.
Noun sense 4 (size of type standardized at 6-point) is usually taken to derive from the attractive type cut by the brothers Giovanni and Gregorio De Gregori (fl. 1482–1503 and 1496–1527 respectively) for their 1498 edition of the divine offices in Venice; it was for a long time the smallest-sized type in use.
Senses: examples: text: My lord and master loves you. O, such love / Could be but recompens'd though you were crown'd / The nonpareil of beauty!
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: King John of France, once prisoner in England, came […] to see the Countess of Salisbury, the nonpareil of those times, and his dear mistress.
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 2, subsection ii:
text: (a wren) crept or crawled, just like a true tree-creeper. I was, as I say, quite close, and watched it most attentively. It certainly—as far as good looking can settle it—did not assist itself with the wings. They remained close against the sides, or, if they moved at all, it was imperceptible to my eyes (which, by the way, are non-pareils).
ref: 1901, Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, p. 240:
glosses: A person or thing that has no equal; a paragon.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: The blue underwing or Clifden nonpareil (Catocala fraxini), a species of moth distributed across the Palearctic; also (obsolete) any of a number of moths of other species.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: In full nonpareil parrot: an eastern rosella, of species Platycercus eximius, a rosella (parrot) native to southeastern Australia.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: A painted bunting (Passerina ciris), a brightly-coloured finch native to North America.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: In full nonpareil apple: an apple tasting both sweet and tart which ripens very late in the season; also, the tree producing this fruit.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: Any of various types of small sweets.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
synonyms: word: hundreds and thousands
word: sprinkles
glosses: A small pellet of white or coloured sugar used as decoration on baked goods and candy.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: A small, flat chocolate drop covered with such pellets of sugar, similar to a comfit.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: A caper (“pickled edible flower bud”) of the smallest size.
examples: text: I believe that letters which are less than a millimetre and a half (1/17 inch) high, will finally prove injurious to the eye. How little attention has hitherto been paid to this important subject is exemplified in the fact that even oculistic journals and books frequently contain nonpareil, or letters only a millimetre (1/25 inch) high.
ref: 1881 May 19, Hermann Cohn, “Eyes and School-Books”, in Popular Science Monthly:
text: A Handbook of Astronomy (cover, brown leather, detached, 5 plates, antique letterpress long primer, author’s footnotes nonpareil, marginal clues brevier, captions small pica).
ref: 1922 February, James Joyce, “[17]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
topics: media
publishing
typography
synonyms: word: nonpareille
english: in European contexts
translation: in European contexts
glosses: A size of type between ruby and emerald (or, in the United States, between agate and minion), standardized as 6-point; (countable) a slug of this size.