supernaculum
English
Etymology
Sham Latin, intended to mean upon the nail.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌs(j)uː.pəˈnæ.kjə.ləm/
Adverb
supernaculum (not comparable)
- (obsolete) According to the rules of an old drinking game in which the drinker upturned the empty cup and had to drink more if the remaining droplets spilled beyond the edge of his fingernail.
- To the last drop, to the bottom.
- Sir Walter Scott
- Nay, it shall be an overflowing bumper, an you will; and I will drink it super naculum.
- Sir Walter Scott
Noun
supernaculum (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Excellent wine that one would wish to drink to the last drop.
- 1796, George Colman the Younger, The Iron Chest; Act II, Scene 4
- I've placed another flaggon on the table. Your worship knows it— number thirty-five:— the supernaculum.
- 1836, Madrid in 1835: Sketches of the Metropolis of Spain and its Inhabitants, and of Society and Manners in the Peninsula
- Between the mattings, or dangling from the arched awning, an experienced eye may detect little pet barrels of supernaculum; some racy wine sent as a present from the correrero of Malaga, to some old friend or patron in the metropolis.
- 1796, George Colman the Younger, The Iron Chest; Act II, Scene 4
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