adv. and sb. slang. Also 6 -nagulum, -neʓulum, 7 -nagullum, -naculam. [mod.L. rendering of G. auf den nagel on to the nail, in phr. auf den nagel trinken to drink off liquor to the last drop.]
A. adv. Used in reference to the practice of turning up the emptied cup or glass on one’s left thumb-nail, to show that all the liquor has been drunk; hence, to the last drop, to the bottom.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse, E 4, marg. Drinking super nagulum, a deuise of drinking new come out of Fraunce; which is, after a man hath turnd up the bottom of the cup, to drop it on his naile, & make a pearle with that is left; which, if it shed, & he cannot make stand on, by reason ther’s too much, he must drinke againe for his pennance.
c. 1600. Timon, II. v. (1842), 38. I drinke this to thee super naculum.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. vi. 102. The whole school (I mean Schola Bibendi) … follow that way to a drop, which is called in the most authentick and emphaticall word they have, super naculum.
1678. Dryden, Limberham, I. i. He drank thy health five times, supernaculum, to my son Brain-sick.
1728. Ramsay, To his Friends In Ireland, 11. Drinking … bumpers fair out, Supernaculum but spilling.
1827. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. As he withdrew the horn from his mouth, all present … gave a loud cry of ‘Supernaculum!’
1835. Edinb. Rev., Oct., 41. Personages … drinking supernaculum out of grotesque goblets.
b. ellipt.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., I. 108. She set it to her Nose,… Until that she had supt it all in. Then turning’t Topsey on her Thumb Says look, here’s Super-naculum.
1739. ‘R. Bull,’ trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 180. Yours first turn topsy-turvy on your Thumb, And cry, behold! here’s Supernaculum.
[a. 1745. Meston, Poems (1767), 194. Sir, pull it off, and on your thumb Cernamus supernaculum.]
Comb. 1622. Massinger & Dekker, Virg. Mart., II. i. C iv b. Bacchus,… grand Patron of rob-pots, vpsic-freesie-tiplers, and super-naculam takers.
c. transf. and fig.
1598. B. Jonson, Case is Altered, IV. iii. (1609), F 4 b. I confesse Cupids carouse, he plaies super negulum with my liquor of life.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, L 1 b. Not the lowsie riddle wherewith fishermen constrayned … Homer … to drowne hymselfe,… but should be dressed and set before you supernagulum, with eight score more galliarde crosse-poynts.
B. sb. 1. A liquor to be drunk to the last drop; a wine of the highest quality; hence, anything excellent of its kind.
1704. W. King, Orpheus & Euridice, 253. I saw some Sparks as they were Drinking, With mighty Mirth, and little thinking Their Jests were Supernaculum.
1760. Foote, Minor, I. 43. Levant me, but it is supernaculum—Speak when you have enough.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Supernaculum, good liquor, of which there is not even a drop left sufficient to wet one’s nail.
1804. W. Blake, Lett. to W. Hayley, 28 Dec. With our good Flaxman’s good help, and with your remarks on it [sc. a portrait] in addition, I hope to make it a ‘supernaculum.’
1822. Byron, Werner, I. i. 376. ’Tis here! the supernaculum! twenty years Of age, if ’tis a day.
1895. H. Watson, in Chap-Bk., III. 490. I called for Burgundy—some of the right supernaculum.
2. A draught that empties the cup to the last drop; also, a full cup, a bumper.
1827. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. One pull—a gasp—another desperate draught—it was done! and followed by a supernaculum almost superior to the exulting Asmanshausen’s.
1845. Lowell, Eurydice, 8. And empty to each radiant comer A supernaculum of summer.
Hence Supernacular a. (of drink), excellent.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxxi. Some white hermitage at the Haws (by the way, the butler only gave me half a glass each time) was supernacular.
