A pleonasm used for the sake of grandiloquence.
1704. I never see a woman on the Rode so Dreadfull late, in all the days of my versall life.—Sarah Kemble Knight, ‘The Journals of Madame Knight,’ p. 12 (1825) (Bartlett).
1797. I veow you, she milks twenty ceows every day … dickens take ef she’d turn her back to any woman in the varsal world.—Gazette of the U.S., Phila., Feb. 21.
1823. This Indiana is the best country in the world for young men. Were I a young man I would live no where else in all the universal world.—W. Faux, ‘Memorable Days in America,’ p. 212 (Lond.).
1826. “Our son Tim has grown so lazy, that there is but one thing in the varsal world I can think he is good for.” “What is that, wife?” “Why, make a member of Congress of him, to be sure.”—Mass. Spy, June 21.
1830. It will probably light up a smile in the features of “the universal Yankee nation” [New England] to learn that, &c.—Mass. Spy, Jan. 6: from the N.Y. Commercial Advertiser.
1836. See HALF HORSE, HALF ALLIGATOR.
1839. I am sorry to say, the gentleman did not seem to consider the killing of a schoolmaster any very heinous offence; on the contrary, he was extremely diverted at the affair, swore I was a lad of mettle, and that he would protect me against the universal Yankee nation.—R. M. Bird, ‘Robin Day,’ i. 206 (Phila.).
1843. Will it not be the universal Yankee nation by whom that great valley of the tranquil sea [the Oregon country] shall be filled?—Mr. Choate of Mass. in the U.S. Senate, Feb. 3: Cong. Globe, p. 224, App.
1843. Child, I wouldn’t a had you there for the universal world.—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ i. 175.
1843. With fair play she sentimentally allowed her Bill could lick are a man in the ’varsal world, and his weight in wild cats to boot.—Id., ii. 158.
1849. [He was] a member of the universal Yankee nation.—Mr. Root of Ohio, House of Repr., Dec. 12: Cong. Globe, p. 20.
1856. The cabinet steadily asserts its dignity and that of this “universal Yankee nation,” and recommends a sea-voyage to the astute representative of the John Bull interest.—Yale Lit. Mag., xxi. 209–10.
1856. See YANKEE.
1859. Under free trade,… the power and resources of the universal Yankee nation would be equal to any wants of our people.—Mr. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, U.S. Senate, March 2: Cong. Globe, p. 1569.
1860. It is the universal custom of the universal Yankee nation to vaunt itself, and boast of its glorious triumphs.—Richmond Enquirer, May 1, p. 1/5.
*** See also Notes and Queries, 8 S. vi. 46, 335; vii. 38.
