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Author: William Soisson
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1514486164
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 254
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Book Description
Twenty years ago, when the author first read Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary," he was ecstatic. Here at last was a creative work that was utterly lacking in discrimination. Worth no regard whatever for race, creed, color, sex, religion, or fast food preference, Bierce kicked everyone's sacred cow right in the udder. The author instantly knew that somehow, some day, he must continue the work begun by Ambrose. So it is that "The Curmudgeon's Dictionary" follows the great Bierce's lead in flaying without mercy the pretentious of our world. At the same time, "TCD" unavoidably reflects many of the changes in style that have occurred in our language since 1911, when "The Devil's Dictionary" was first published. Many of the old poets, like Biddle Tamey and Opned Teal, so well quoted by Bierce, are gone, having been replaced by such contemporary greats as Taner Bane and Sigson Kolgy, who, though they lack the elegance of the poets of Bierce's day, have the virtues of simplicity and forthrightness. Then, too, changes in science and technology have brought us many new terms such as "computer," "CAT Scan," "Jive," and "Monica," which did not yet exist in Bierce's day. Moreover, changes in the attention span have made it desirable to abbreviate many definitions and support the work of the aforementioned more concise poets. The author has violated this procedure only when considerations of clarity or beauty have made it imperative, as with the haunting "Ode to a Giant Bonsai Tree." Aside from such evolutionary matters, one will find that some of the venerable Bierce's definitions are still valid today and have found their way into this magnificent book in updated form. The updating is no criticism of the master, only recognition that time moves things, if not forward, at least along.
Author: William Soisson
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1514486164
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Get Book Here
Book Description
Twenty years ago, when the author first read Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary," he was ecstatic. Here at last was a creative work that was utterly lacking in discrimination. Worth no regard whatever for race, creed, color, sex, religion, or fast food preference, Bierce kicked everyone's sacred cow right in the udder. The author instantly knew that somehow, some day, he must continue the work begun by Ambrose. So it is that "The Curmudgeon's Dictionary" follows the great Bierce's lead in flaying without mercy the pretentious of our world. At the same time, "TCD" unavoidably reflects many of the changes in style that have occurred in our language since 1911, when "The Devil's Dictionary" was first published. Many of the old poets, like Biddle Tamey and Opned Teal, so well quoted by Bierce, are gone, having been replaced by such contemporary greats as Taner Bane and Sigson Kolgy, who, though they lack the elegance of the poets of Bierce's day, have the virtues of simplicity and forthrightness. Then, too, changes in science and technology have brought us many new terms such as "computer," "CAT Scan," "Jive," and "Monica," which did not yet exist in Bierce's day. Moreover, changes in the attention span have made it desirable to abbreviate many definitions and support the work of the aforementioned more concise poets. The author has violated this procedure only when considerations of clarity or beauty have made it imperative, as with the haunting "Ode to a Giant Bonsai Tree." Aside from such evolutionary matters, one will find that some of the venerable Bierce's definitions are still valid today and have found their way into this magnificent book in updated form. The updating is no criticism of the master, only recognition that time moves things, if not forward, at least along.
Author: Mark Herrmann
Publisher: American Bar Association
ISBN: 9781590316764
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
This collection of essays written by The Curmudgeon, offers practical, honest and you need to know this advice for surviving and thriving in a law firm. The book covers the basics of law practice and law firm etiquette, from doing effective research and writing to dressing for success, dealing with staff and clients and building a law practice. Concise, humorous and full of valuable (albeit curmudgeonly) insight, this is a must-read for every newly minted law school graduate or new lawyer.
Author: William Safire
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195340612
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 887
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Book Description
Featuring more than one thousand new, rewritten, and updated entries, this reference on American politics explains current terms in politics, economics, and diplomacy.
Author: Allan Wooley
Publisher: Book Venture Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1946735485
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
After growing up in Maine and attending Bowdoin, the author earned a PhD in Classics at Princeton. He taught at Duke, before returning to Phillips Exeter Academy, where he taught for 36 years and was department chair and coordinator of academic computing. In the New England Classical Association he served as president and executive secretary.
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820326348
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 438
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Book Description
If we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. There, a bore is "a person who talks when you wish him to listen," and happiness is "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another." This is the most comprehensive, authoritative edition ever of Ambrose Bierce’s satiric masterpiece. It renders obsolete all other versions that have appeared in the book’s ninety-year history. A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth. This new edition is based on David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi’s exhaustive investigation into the book’s writing and publishing history. All of Bierce’s known satiric definitions are here, including previously uncollected, unpublished, and alternative entries. Definitions dropped from previous editions have been restored while nearly two hundred wrongly attributed to Bierce have been excised. For dedicated Bierce readers, an introduction and notes are also included. Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary is a classic that stands alongside the best work of satirists such as Twain, Mencken, and Thurber. This unabridged edition will be celebrated by humor fans and word lovers everywhere.
Author: David Micklethwait
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786421572
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 362
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Book Description
Noah Webster was described by the publisher of a competing dictionary as "a vain ... plodding Yankee, who aspired to be a second Johnson"--a criticism that rings mostly true. He was certainly vain and, born in Connecticut, undeniably a Yankee. Moreover, though he referred to Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language as a "barren desart of philology," the American lexicographer relied heavily on the book during the creation of his own American Dictionary, going so far as to filch whole sections. And few would seem more "plodding" than Webster, who was positively obsessed with collecting and preserving bits of information. He kept records of the weather, carefully logged the number of houses in every new town he passed through, filed away every scrap of his writing and everything written about him, and filled the margins of his books with references, dates and corrections. The proud Yankee's sensibilities, however, also made him a fine lexicographer. Generally credited with distinguishing American spelling and usage from British, Webster shunned prescriptive mores and was doggedly loyal to his own language habits, as well as to those of the average American speaker. The book covers Webster's major publications and the influences and methods that shaped them; recounts his life as schoolteacher, copyright law champion, and itinerant lecturer; and examines the Webster legacy. An appendix containing title page reproductions from Webster's books, as well as some from his predecessors and competitors, is also included.
Author: Jack Lynch
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802719341
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 128
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Book Description
Lackbrain, oysterwench, wantwit, clotpoll--Samuel Johnson's famous dictionary of 1755 contained some of the ripest insults in the English language. In Samuel Johnson's Insults, Jack Lynch has compiled more than 300 of the curmudgeonly lexicographer's mightiest barbs, along with definitions only the master himself could elucidate. Word lovers will delight in flexing their linguistic muscles with devilishly descriptive vituperations that pack a wicked punch. Many of these zingers have long lain dormant. Some have even come close to extinction. Now they're back in all their prickly glory, ready to be relished once more.
Author: Evan Morris
Publisher: Plume Books
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
Author: Various
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0452266688
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
More than 1,000 outrageously irreverent quotations, anecdotes, and interviews on a vast array of subjects, from an illustrious list of world class grouches. “If you can’t say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.”—Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Author: Anatoly Liberman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199889015
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 336
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Book Description
Written in a funny, charming, and conversational style, Word Origins is the first book to offer a thorough investigation of the history and the science of etymology, making this little-known field accessible to everyone interested in the history of words. Anatoly Liberman, an internationally acclaimed etymologist, takes the reader by the hand and explains the many ways that English words can be made, and the many ways in which etymologists try to unearth the origins of words. Every chapter is packed with dozens of examples of proven word histories, used to illustrate the correct ways to trace the origins of words as well as some of the egregiously bad ways to trace them. He not only tells the known origins of hundreds of words, but also shows how their origins were determined. And along the way, the reader is treated to a wealth of fascinating word facts. Did they once have bells in a belfry? No, the original meaning of belfry was siege tower. Are the words isle and island, raven and ravenous, or pan and pantry related etymologically? No, though they look strikingly similar, these words came to English via different routes. Partly a history, partly a how-to, and completely entertaining, Word Origins invites readers behind the scenes to watch an etymologist at work.
