THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY

theenglishteacher on October 29th, 2008

I thought I’d give this a mention as I gave a lesson based on The Devil’s Dictionary this morning, and my students found it all so very interesting. So what is The Devil’s Dictionary? The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, is a satirical book published in 1911. It offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language.

Here are some

Examples

Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.
Arrest: Formally to detain one accused of unusualness.
Barometer: An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.
Bore: A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
Cannon: An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.
Cat: A soft indestructible automaton provided by Nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle.
Christian: One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ insofar as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
Congratulation: The civility of envy.
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.
Dictionary: A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.
Education: That which discloses to the wise, and disguises from the foolish, their lack of understanding.
Elector: One who enjoys the sacred privilege of voting for the man of another man’s choice.
Friendship: A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul.
Future: That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.
Helpmate: A wife, or bitter half.
Hers: His.
Idiot: A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
Insurrection: An unsuccessful revolution.
Justice: A commodity which in a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service.
Learning: The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Marriage: The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.; Source and read on here..www.en.wikipedia.org