NON 
NON'NIUS, or Nunnez (Louis), a learned phyfician, 
was the fon of a Spanifti furgeon fettled at Antwerp. He 
lludied at Louvain,-and became diftinguifhed for his claf- 
fical erudition, as well as his profeffional knowledge. 
His writings are chiefly of the phylological clafs. i. Hif- 
pania, 8vo. 1607. relating chiefly to the ftate of ancient 
Spain, 2. Ichthyophagia, five de Pifcium efu Commenta- 
rius, 8vo. 1616. in this work he confiders the opinions of 
the ancient phyficians concerning the ufe of fifti in food, 
and agrees with them in reprefenting it as a falutary ali¬ 
ment to fedentary and aged perfons, and thofe of a weak 
conftitution. 3. De Re Cibaria, 4to. 1627, 1644; wherein 
he confiders alimentary fubftances in general, both ani¬ 
mal and vegetable. The chief value of this work, which 
is curious and entertaining, confifts of the abundant il- 
luftrations of the Latin poets, particularly Horace, Juve¬ 
nal, and Martial, arifing from the opinions and practices 
of antiquity which he has collefted on this head. 5. In 
1620, he printed an extenfive commentary, in folio, on 
the Medals of Greece, of Julius Caefar, Auguftus, and 
Tiberius, publiflied many years before by Golzius. 7. 
Some medical trafts of this phyfician appeared with Be- 
verwyck’s book De Calculo, 1638. 8. He alfo wrote 
fome poems, of little merit. Gen. Biog. 
NON'NUS, a Greek poet who flouriflied in the fifth 
century, was a native of Panopolis in Egypt. He was 
the author of two works fo different in their fubjedl that 
they have by fome been adjudged to different authors, 
jut critic§ generally agree that they belong to the fame. 
His “ Dionyfiacs,” a poem of forty-eight books, contains 
i hiftory of the birth, adventures, victories, and apotheo- 
iis, of Bacchus, and comprehends a vaft mifcellany of 
heathen mythology and erudition. It is wild and rhap- 
fodical in its plan, and inflated in its, diftion ; and, al¬ 
though it has been extravagantly commended by fome 
critics, a founder judgment has pronounced it charafte- 
rifed by the falfe taife which accompanied the declining 
age of literature. The other work of Nonnus is a metri¬ 
cal “ Paraphrafe of the Gofpel of St.John.” In the matter 
of his explanations he chiefly follows Chryfoltom ; and it 
is thought that he has rather obfcured than elucidated 
his author. Of his ftyle very different judgments have 
been formed ; for, while Du Pin charges it with being- 
turgid and dithyrambic, like that of his Dionyfiacs, others 
have praifed its clearnefs and attic elegance. This work 
is valuable as affording fome important various readings, 
which have been collected by editors of the NewTefta- 
ment. It is remarkable that he omits the incident of the 
woman taken in adultery. The Dionyfiacs of Nonnus 
were firft printed at Antwerp in 1569. They were re¬ 
printed with a Latin verfion by Eilhard Lubin at Hanau 
in 1605, and afterwards by Cunseus in 1610. Of his pa¬ 
raphrafe there have been a number of editions, of which 
the bell is that of Dan. Heinfius, L. Bat. 1627. VoJJii 
Poet. Gr. 
NO'NO, a town of Abyflinia : 100 miles fouth of Mine. 
NONOA'BA, a town of Mexico, in New Bifcay: 105 
miles weft of Parral. 
NONPAREIL', f. [French.] Excellence unequalled. 
My lord and mailer loves you : O fuch love 
Could be but recompens'd tho’ you were crown’d 
The nonpareil of beauty. Shakespeare's Tw. Night. 
A kind of apple.—Printers’ letter of a small si2e, of which the present two 
lines are a specimen. 
NONPAREIL', adj. Peerlefs. Bullokar. —In the mean 
time the rnoft nonpareil beauty of the world, beauteous 
knowledge, ftandeth unregarded, or cloiftered up in mere 
fpeculation. Whitlock's Mann, of the Eng. 1654. 
NON'PLUS, f [Latin.] Puzzle ; inability to fay or do 
more. A low word.—The nonplus of my reafon will yield 
a fairer opportunity to my faith. South. —One or two rules 
on which their conclufions depend, in moft men have go- 
- verned all their thoughts: take thefe from them, and they 
are at a lofs, and their underftanding is perfectly at a non¬ 
plus. Locke. 
NON 131 
To NON'PLUS, v. a. To confound; to puzzle; to put 
to a Hand ; to flop.—Nor is the composition of our own 
bodies the only wonder; we are as much nonplvft by the 
moft contemptible worm and plant. Glanville's Scepjis .—• 
That fin that is a pitch beyond all thofe, mull needs be 
fuch an one as muft nonplus the devil himfelf to proceed 
farther. South. —Tom has been eloquent for half an hour 
together, when he has been nonplufed by Mr. Dry’s defi¬ 
ring him to tell what it was that he endeavoured to prove. 
Spedator. 
His parts were fo accompli(h’t, 
That right or wrong he ne’er was nonplujl. Hudihrus. 
NON'SENSE, f. [lion and fcnfe. This word is laid by 
P. Heylin, in 1636, to be new and uncouth. But Mr. 
Malone obferves that Anthony Stafford, in his Medita¬ 
tions printed in i6ij, ufesit; writings it, however, non- 
JenJe, apparently as a new word. It continued to befo writ¬ 
ten, I may add, long after; and had the accent on fenfe; 
as in an Elegy on the death of Donne, at the end of 
his Poems. This word, Mr. Todd fays, is not in 
Shakefpeare.] Unmeaning or ungrammatical language.— 
Many copies difperfed gathering new faults, I law more 
nonfenfe than I could have crammed into it. Dry den .— 
This non fenfe got into all the following editions by a mif- 
take of the ftage editors. Pope on Shakefpeare. 
Till underflood, all tales. 
Like nonfenfe, are not true nor falfe. Iludihras. 
Trifles ; things of no importance. A low word. 
What’s the world to him ? 
’Tis nonfenfe all. Thomfon. 
NONSEN'SICAL, adj. Unmeaning; foolifh.—They 
had produced many other inept combinations, or aggre¬ 
gate forms of particular things, and nonfcnfical fyftems of 
the whole. Ray on the Creation. 
NONSEN'SICALLY, adv. Fooliflily ; ridiculoufly.—Ne¬ 
ver was any-thing more nonfenfically pleafant. L’Eftrange's 
Tr. of Quevedo. 
NONSEN'SICALNESS,/ Ungrammatical jargon; fool- 
ilk abfurdity. 
NON'SUIT, f. Stoppage of a fuit at law ; a renouncing 
of the fuit by the plaintiff, moft commonly upon the dif- 
covery of fome error or defefl, when the matter is fo far 
proceeded in, as the jury is ready at the bar to deliver 
their verdidl.—If the plaintiff is guilty of delays againft 
the rules of law in any ftage of the aftion, a nonfuit is en¬ 
tered. Blaclftone. 
To NON'SUIT, v.a. To deprive of the benefit of a le¬ 
gal procefs, for fome failure in the management.—The 
addreffes of both houfes of parliament, the council, and 
the declarations of moft counties and corporations, are 
laid afide as of no weight, and the whole kingdom of 
Ireland nonfuited, in default of appearance. Swift. 
Before thejury gave their verdift on a trial, it was for¬ 
merly ufual to call or demand the plaintiff, in order to an- 
fwer the amercement to which by the oid law he was lia¬ 
ble in cafe he failed in his fuit. And it is now ufual to 
call him, whenever he is unable to make out his cafe, ei¬ 
ther by reafon of his not adducing any evidence in lupport 
of it, or any evidence arifing in the proper county. If, 
upon the plaintiff’s being called, neither he, nor any body 
for him, appears, he is nonfuited, the jurors are difehar- 
ged, the adlion is at an end, and the defendant ftiall re¬ 
cover his cofts. The reafon of this pra£tice is, that a 
nonfuit is more eligible for the plaintiff than a verdift 
againft him 5 for after a nonfuit, which is only a default, 
he may commence the fame fuit again for the fame caufe 
of action ; but after a verdift had, and judgment confe- 
quent thereupon, he is barred from attacking the defen¬ 
dant upon the fame ground of complaint. Bl. Comm. 
vol. iii. 1 
NON'TRON, a town of France, and principal place of 
a diftrift, in the department of the Dordogne ; twenty- 
one 
