penultimates

It's basically the choice of the penultimates of mediocrity.

Camille Paglia thinks Hillary Clinton has "a Nixonian reflex steeped in toxic gender bias." Ann Althouse 2008

While we each worked as individuals upon all of the experimental lines, whenever we dealt with any one of the penultimates or ultimates we did so as a fusion.

Children of the Lens Smith, E. E. 1954

Your father and your mother were the penultimates of long'very long'lines of mating; their reproductive cells were such that in their fusion practically every gene carrying any trait of weakness was rejected.

Children of the Lens Smith, E. E. 1954

Whatever the method employed, the result was that the genes of those two uniquely complementary penultimates were precisely those necessary to produce the first, and at present the only third-stage Lensmen.

Children of the Lens Smith, E. E. 1954

They and the corresponding females--don't take that literally for Nadreck, of course-were also penultimates, of lines as long as ours.

Children of the Lens Smith, E. E. 1954

"A swimming lesson," I repeated plainly, or as plainly as I could considering my agitation and the fact that the cold in my head had noticeably thickened my utterance, making it well-nigh impossible for me to give the proper inflection to certain of the aspirates and penultimates.

Fibble, D.D. Tony Sarg 1910

Lest haughtiness should still have any place in the breasts of these penultimates of the human race, the order was repeated in the same delightful volume in still plainer fashion, 'Burgesses, Literary

Some Private Views James Payn 1864

In that way let him learn the quantity of Latin and Greek penultimates.

The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg Thomas De Quincey 1822

Other popular Get! 's for the 15 October schedule: the MÄR Omega and Mieru Hito penultimates (volumes 3 and 6 respectively), Tail of the Moon 8, and after a hiatus lasting longer than a fortnight, Adachi Mitsuru-sensei's Short Program (volume 3).

Anime Nano! 2008