The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
RESPECTABILITY, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank account.
BEAUTY, n. The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.
LITIGANT, n...
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RESPECTABILITY, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head
and a bank account. BEAUTY, n. The power by which a woman charms a
lover and terrifies a husband. LITIGANT, n. A person about to give
up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones. If these caustic
definitions catch your fancy, you'd enjoy The Devil's Dictionary by
Ambrose Bierce. He was a columnist with the San Francisco News
Letter, a weekly paper which was a business publication aimed at
the corporate sector. However, it had a column entitled Town Crier
which featured satirical asides and comments in a lighter vein.
Bierce went on to edit the paper. His acerbic wit and pungent take
on the events of the day earned him the sobriquet of “The Laughing
Devil of San Francisco.” At one point, Bierce found himself short
of material for the paper and since he had just bought a copy of
Webster's Dictionary, he hit upon the idea of creating a comic
dictionary, with a sardonic take on word definitions. In his
preface, Bierce says that he began it in a desultory way in 1881
and continued in this fashion till 1906, working through the
alphabet. He included some 88 sections comprising about 20 words
each as a weekly serial in his newspaper, generously laced with
Bierce's brand of wit, satire and cynicism. Some of it was
published under the title The Cynic's Word Book. In 1911, the
entire work was finally compiled and published under the name The
Devil's Dictionary. Apart from zany definitions, the book is also
peppered with trenchant bits of verse that add to the appeal. Most
of these are Bierce's own creations, signed under various
pseudonyms as Orm Pludge, Salder Bupp and “that learned and
ingenious cleric, Father Gassalasca Jape” etc. There are several
different versions of The Devil's Dictionary in circulation. Some
are abridged versions, while others have several omissions. Some
recent editions are compiled from various sources, since Bierce was
largely a freelance columnist and author who contributed to several
newspapers simultaneously. He was a gifted writer, orator,
journalist, short story writer and fierce opponent of hypocrisy.
His credo was “Nothing matters!” He was a purist in style and
considered a master craftsman by his peers and readers and
generously supported new writers. Bierce's death is shrouded in
mystery because he disappeared without a trace while on a tour of
old Civil War battlefields in America and Mexico. The Devil's
Dictionary became so popular that it gave rise to a host of
imitations such as Roger's Profanisaurus, Wickedictionary, The
Computer Contradictionary and many more in the same vein.
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