Best Dictionary Ever

Thursday, May 8th, 2008 @ 9:34PM

(purposely left blank)

When I was in high school I wish I had owned a copy of “The Devil’s Dictionary” by Ambrose Bierce.  The author fought in the Civil War and was later a journalist where this book came about piece by piece. Mr. Bierce preferred the title “The Cynic’s Word Book” but “The Devil’s Dictionary” is the title that stuck and the former contains too much exposition for my taste.  Anyway, this dictionary would be one George Orwell would have loved (and if you get a chance read “Shooting An Elephant” great short by Mr. Orwell) as he hated political speak.  Anyway, The Devil’s Dictionary has be released again with artwork from Ralph Steadman whose work you may remember from “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” and the artwork on my snowboard.

This is no Oxford dictionary.  For example:

Corporation, n.  An ingenious device for securing individual profit without individual responsibility.

Hello! Enron, Worldcom, Our Government!  Definitions should not be all-encompassing.  What about this one:

Wedding, n. A ceremony at which two persons undertake to be come one, one undertakes to become nothing and nothing undertakes to become supportable.

Remembering this helps keep me single and I won’t get into Bierce’s definitions of men, women or wine, though when I do think of his definition of women I am reminded of his definition of:

Bait, n. A preparation that renders the hook more palatable. The best kind is beauty.

Remember, next time your head turns as an attractive, sexy and admired person passes you on the street, there is a hook and beauty is only trying to trap you (remember the definition of “wedding”)?.  Best to let them go by and live another day.  Though published in 1911, and many of the entries stem much earlier, it is a great read and in my opinion completely legitimate as a resource tool when working on a paper.
That is all I will post on this for today but you should really look into adding this fine work of wit and literature to your personal library.

Thanks for reading,

Corey O’Brien

Comments (1) •