Is the expression none less than similar to the idiom no less than?
Which form is preferable to use in the following example:
None less than the country's president attended today's meeting.
OR
No less than the country's president attended today's meeting.
Please mention why if they are similar, and in which resource is the idiom "none less than" is mentioned!
I think this really boils down to a question of when you use no and when none.
There will be no less than sixty people at the gathering.
Few people in Britain drink Bovril these days, none less than me
Editing later:
The usage to which you further refer is highly idiomatic, and it is perhaps worth considering for a moment what it is saying. It doesn't mean that nobody of any significance less than the President was there. It means that one of the people there was no one less than the President.
Personally I would prefer to say no less than... but as none is short for no oneI don't think it really matters.
Neither. Say "none other than".
It accomplishes litotes (Wow! It was the president himself!) without inviting the misunderstandings of "no/none less than" which had to be explained twice in this thread.
