exceptional vs fair to middling

exceptional

noun
  • An exception, or something having an exceptional value 

adj
  • Corresponding to something of lower dimension under a birational correspondence. 

  • Forming an exception; not ordinary; uncommon; rare. 

  • Better than the average; superior due to exception or rarity. 

fair to middling

adj
  • Only tolerably good; somewhat favorable. 

How often have the words exceptional and fair to middling occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )