@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
So, if fastener is the comparative, would fastenest be the superlative?
Fastener is a noun. Faster is the comparative.
Combat by Romain Rolland (1935)
They get stuck faster with every movement of their wings." Annette saw this in the case of her bumble-bee, her Timon. In vain did he buzz and spread fear around him. He could not escape. And he knew it! Annette was witness of his furies.
A painter's camp in the Highlands, and Thoughts about art by Philip Gilbert Hamerton - (1862)
I tried it once with cold water, but it would not do, the fat stuck faster than ever to the plates. I know better now, and heat the water, which melts the fat, and so I get my plates tolerably clean. How I do admire and respect all scullery-maids!
Lord Byron (Don Juan)
However this may be, 't is pretty sure The Russian officer for life was lamed, For the Turk's teeth stuck faster than a skewer, And left him 'midst the invalid and maimed (etc)
...and fastest the superlative
John Wesley by AC Outer (1980)
Methodist was the label that stuck fastest. Wesley disliked it, but with characteristic aplomb, he accepted it as a badge of honor
Cry Macho: A Novel by N Richard Nash (1975)
...the thing that had stuck fastest with the kid was that wetbacks occasionally got killed. Something had happened to the boy. He had lost some of his childhood recklessness, his fool's courage. He was suddenly unsure of himself