Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. exceptionally good liquor; thus as adj., the very last (drop); as adv., to the last drop, to the bottom.

1592		Nashe Pierce Penilesse 57: He is no body that cannot drinke super nagulum, carouse the Hunters’ Hoop, quaff upsey freze crosse with leapes, gloves, mumpes, frolickses.
c.1600		Timon in Dyce (1842) II v: I drinke this to thee super naculum.
1622		Massinger Virgin-Martyr II i: Bacchus, the God of brew’d wine and sugar, grand patron of rob-pots, upsey-freesy tipplers and super-naculum takers.
1630		J. Taylor ‘Brood of Cormorants’ in Works (1869) III 5: Ane when he drinkes out all the totall summe, / Gaue it the title of supernagullum.
1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes III vi 102: The standard for morning and evening draughts [...] is called in the most authentick and emphaticall word they have, super naculum.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 61: Until that she had supp’d it all in: / Then turning’t Topsey on her Thumb, / Says, Look, here’s Supernaculum.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 31: Shedding whole Tankards supernaculum / Of burnt wine tears.
1678		Dryden Mr Limberham I i: He drank thy health five times, supernaculum, to my son Brain-sick.
1697		Behn False Count IV i: Your true-bred Woman of Honour drinks all, Supernaculum, by Jove.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 288: Come, you merry Jades, here’s your old Health, To the best in Christendom; and of it went to a Super-naculum Drop.
1719		Swift To Dr. Sheridan Dec. 14: But I doubt the oraculum is a poor supernaculum [F&H] .
1728		Ramsay To his Friends In Ireland 11: Drinking roundly rum and claret, / Ale and usquae, bumpers fair out, / Supernaculum but spilling .
1739		R. Bull Grobianus 180: And cry, behold! here’s Supernaculum.
1760		Foote The Minor 31: 43: Shall I fill thee a bumper? [...] Levant me, but it is supernaculum.
[1746		W. Dunkin Parson’s Revels (2010) 107: Yet like a trusty Trojan true, / I fairly fill my Glass with you / And here you see me drink it Su / -Per Naculum].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Supernaculum. Good liquor, of which there is not even a drop left sufficient to wet one’s nail.
1802		Lancaster Gaz. 20 Feb. 3/4: He irrefutably proved [...] that his supernaculum was entire composed of rough cyder and British spirits, coloured with the wood called red saunders.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 299: I can see little harm in Glynne’s sporting us a tot or two of his supernaculum.
1835		Edinburgh Rev. Oct. 41: Personages [...] drinking supernaculum out of grotesque goblets .
[1835		‘Ravishing Fifty Fair Maids’ in Fanny Hill’s New Friskey Chanterr in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 349: Then Philip begins her health, / And turns a beer-glass on his thumb].
1842		Leeds Times 30 July 3/5: There are also several bins denominated Cabinet Wine, which it appears are of the supernaculum order.
1863		Dorset County Chron. 3 Sept. 9/2: Whatever-his-name’s champagne cider [...] is not to be despised. You don’t always get such supernaculum, even in Devonshire.
1875		Sheffield Indep. 12 June 9/1: The Blacksmith took a mighty draught [...] and silently handed the flagon to Fitz Roy, who left no supernaculum.
1884		Liverpool Echo 13 June 4/4: Spernaculum. To show the extraordinary prices buyers are willing to give for champagne [...] Pommery 1874 reAlised from 140s. to 148s.
a.1891		J.R. Lowell Eurydice n.p.: And empty to each radiant summer A supernaculum of summer [F&H].
1895		Taunton Courier 6 Mar. 2/1: This was the supernaculum of his cellar, and [...] the landlord of the Warden’s Arms was as tenacious as ever of producing it.

2. any first-rate commodity.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 167: Supernaculum — any article of consumption unusually good — as, a superior pinch of snuff.
1858		Hereford Jrnl 27 Jan. 4/4: Perhaps the supernaculum of the performance is the impersonation of ‘Miss Clara Chattaway,’ the fashionable young lady.
1859		Hereford Jrnl 5 Jan. 2/1: He was heralded as the supernaculum of all the poetry, philosophy, erudition and romance of the distinguished author.