| |
P
- PAIN
- n.
An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physical basis in
something that is being done to the body, or may be purely mental,
caused by the good fortune of another.
- PAINTING
- n.
The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing
them to the critic.
Formerly, painting and sculpture were combined in the same work:
the ancients painted their statues. The only present alliance between
the two arts is that the modern painter chisels his patrons.
- PALACE
- n.
A fine and costly residence, particularly that of a great official.
The residence of a high dignitary of the Christian Church is called
a palace; that of the Founder of his religion was known as a field,
or wayside. There is progress.
- PALM
- n.
A species of tree having several varieties, of which the familiar
"itching palm" (Palma hominis) is most widely distributed
and sedulously cultivated. This noble vegetable exudes a kind of
invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece
of gold or silver. The metal will adhere with remarkable tenacity.
The fruit of the itching palm is so bitter and unsatisfying that
a considerable percentage of it is sometimes given away in what
are known as "benefactions."
- PALMISTRY
- n.
The 947th method (according to Mimbleshaw's classification) of obtaining
money by false pretences. It consists in "reading character"
in the wrinkles made by closing the hand. The pretence is not altogether
false; character can really be read very accurately in this way,
for the wrinkles in every hand submitted plainly spell the word
"dupe." The imposture consists in not reading it aloud.
- PANDEMONIUM
- n.
Literally, the Place of All the Demons. Most of them have escaped
into politics and finance, and the place is now used as a lecture
hall by the Audible Reformer. When disturbed by his voice the ancient
echoes clamor appropriate responses most gratifying to his pride
of distinction.
- PANTALOONS
- n.
A nether habiliment of the adult civilized male. The garment is
tubular and unprovided with hinges at the points of flexion. Supposed
to have been invented by a humorist. Called "trousers"
by the enlightened and "pants" by the unworthy.
- PANTHEISM
- n.
The doctrine that everything is God, in contradistinction to the
doctrine that God is everything.
- PANTOMIME
- n.
A play in which the story is told without violence to the language.
The least disagreeable form of dramatic action.
- PARDON
- v.
To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the
lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
- PASSPORT
- n.
A document treacherously inflicted upon a citizen going abroad,
exposing him as an alien and pointing him out for special reprobation
and outrage.
- PAST
- n.
That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have
a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the
Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These
two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually
effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow
and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The
Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In
the one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential
prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing,
beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past
is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow.
They are one -- the knowledge and the dream.
- PASTIME
- n.
A device for promoting dejection. Gentle exercise for intellectual
debility.
- PATIENCE
- n.
A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.
- PATRIOT
- n.
One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the
whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.
- PATRIOTISM
- n.
Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate
his name.
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the
last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened
but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
- PEACE
- n.
In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods
of fighting.
O, what's the loud uproar assailing
Mine ears without cease?
'Tis the voice of the hopeful, all-hailing
The horrors of peace.
Ah, Peace Universal; they woo it --
Would marry it, too.
If only they knew how to do it
'Twere easy to do.
They're working by night and by day
On their problem, like moles.
Have mercy, O Heaven, I pray,
On their meddlesome souls!
Ro Amil
- PEDESTRIAN
- n.
The variable (an audible) part of the roadway for an automobile.
- PEDIGREE
- n.
The known part of the route from an arboreal ancestor with a swim
bladder to an urban descendant with a cigarette.
- PENITENT
- adj.
Undergoing or awaiting punishment.
- PERFECTION
- n.
An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an
element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic.
The editor of an English magazine having received a letter
pointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed
"Perfection," promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don't
agree with you," and mailed it to Matthew Arnold.
- PERIPATETIC
- adj.
Walking about. Relating to the philosophy of Aristotle, who, while
expounding it, moved from place to place in order to avoid his pupil's
objections. A needless precaution -- they knew no more of the matter
than he.
- PERORATION
- n.
The explosion of an oratorical rocket. It dazzles, but to an observer
having the wrong kind of nose its most conspicuous peculiarity is
the smell of the several kinds of powder used in preparing it.
- PERSEVERANCE
- n.
A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.
"Persevere, persevere!" cry the homilists all,
Themselves, day and night, persevering to bawl.
"Remember the fable of tortoise and hare --
The one at the goal while the other is -- where?"
Why, back there in Dreamland, renewing his lease
Of life, all his muscles preserving the peace,
The goal and the rival forgotten alike,
And the long fatigue of the needless hike.
His spirit a-squat in the grass and the dew
Of the dogless Land beyond the Stew,
He sleeps, like a saint in a holy place,
A winner of all that is good in a race.
Sukker Uffro
- PESSIMISM
- n.
A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the
disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope
and his unsightly smile.
- PHILANTHROPIST
- n.
A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself
to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.
- PHILISTINE
- n.
One whose mind is the creature of its environment, following the
fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment. He is sometimes learned,
frequently prosperous, commonly clean and always solemn.
- PHILOSOPHY
- n.
A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
- PHOENIX
- n.
The classical prototype of the modern "small hot bird."
- PHONOGRAPH
- n.
An irritating toy that restores life to dead noises.
- PHOTOGRAPH
- n.
A picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. It is a
little better than the work of an Apache, but not quite so good
as that of a Cheyenne.
- PHRENOLOGY
- n.
The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists
in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with.
- PHYSICIAN
- n.
One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.
- PHYSIOGNOMY
- n.
The art of determining the character of another by the resemblances
and differences between his face and our own, which is the standard
of excellence.
"There is no art," says Shakespeare, foolish man,
"To read the mind's construction in the face."
The physiognomists his portrait scan,
And say: "How little wisdom here we trace!
He knew his face disclosed his mind and heart,
So, in his own defence, denied our art."
Lavatar Shunk
- PIANO
- n.
A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated
by pressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience.
- PICKANINNY
- n.
The young of the Procyanthropos, or Americanus dominans.
It is small, black and charged with political fatalities.
- PICTURE
- n.
A representation in two dimensions of something wearisome in three.
"Behold great Daubert's picture here on view --
Taken from Life." If that description's true,
Grant, heavenly Powers, that I be taken, too.
Jali Hane
- PIE
- n.
An advance agent of the reaper whose name is Indigestion.
Cold pie was highly esteemed by the remains.
Rev. Dr. Mucker
(in a funeral sermon over a British nobleman)
Cold pie is a detestable
American comestible.
That's why I'm done -- or undone --
So far from that dear London.
(from the headstone of a British nobleman in Kalamazoo)
- PIETY
- n.
Reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposed resemblance
to man.
The pig is taught by sermons and epistles
To think the God of Swine has snout and bristles.
Judibras
- PIG
- n.
An animal (Porcus omnivorus) closely allied to the human
race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however,
is inferior in scope, for it sticks at pig.
- PIGMY
- n.
One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelers in many
parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only. The Pigmies
are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians --
who are Hogmies.
- PILGRIM
- n.
A traveler that is taken seriously. A Pilgrim Father was one who,
leaving Europe in 1620 because not permitted to sing psalms through
his nose, followed it to Massachusetts, where he could personate
God according to the dictates of his conscience.
- PILLORY
- n.
A mechanical device for inflicting personal distinction -- prototype
of the modern newspaper conducted by persons of austere virtues
and blameless lives.
- PIRACY
- n.
Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.
- PITIFUL
- adj.
The state of an enemy of opponent after an imaginary encounter with
oneself.
- PITY
- n.
A failing sense of exemption, inspired by contrast.
- PLAGIARISM
- n.
A literary coincidence compounded of a discreditable priority and
an honorable subsequence.
- PLAGIARIZE
- v.
To take the thought or style of another writer whom one has never,
never read.
- PLAGUE
- n.
In ancient times a general punishment of the innocent for admonition
of their ruler, as in the familiar instance of Pharaoh the Immune.
The plague as we of to-day have the happiness to know it is merely
Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposeless objectionableness.
- PLAN
- v.t.
To bother about the best method of accomplishing an accidental result.
- PLATITUDE
- n.
The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature.
A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom of a million
fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment in artificial
rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of a departed
truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-mortality. The Pope's-nose of a
featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the
sea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram.
- PLATONIC
- adj.
Pertaining to the philosophy of Socrates. Platonic Love is a fool's
name for the affection between a disability and a frost.
- PLAUDITS
- n.
Coins with which the populace pays those who tickle and devour it.
- PLEASE
- v.
To lay the foundation for a superstructure of imposition.
- PLEASURE
- n.
The least hateful form of dejection.
- PLEBEIAN
- n.
An ancient Roman who in the blood of his country stained nothing
but his hands. Distinguished from the Patrician, who was a saturated
solution.
- PLEBISCITE
- n.
A popular vote to ascertain the will of the sovereign.
- PLENIPOTENTIARY
- adj.
Having full power. A Minister Plenipotentiary is a diplomatist possessing
absolute authority on condition that he never exert it.
- PLEONASM
- n.
An army of words escorting a corporal of thought.
- PLOW
- n.
An implement that cries aloud for hands accustomed to the pen.
- PLUNDER
- v.
To take the property of another without observing the decent and
customary reticences of theft. To effect a change of ownership with
the candid concomitance of a brass band. To wrest the wealth of
A from B and leave C lamenting a vanishing opportunity.
- POCKET
- n.
The cradle of motive and the grave of conscience. In woman this
organ is lacking; so she acts without motive, and her conscience,
denied burial, remains ever alive, confessing the sins of others.
- POETRY
- n.
A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.
- POKER
- n.
A game said to be played with cards for some purpose to this lexicographer
unknown.
- POLICE
- n.
An armed force for protection and participation.
- POLITENESS
- n.
The most acceptable hypocrisy.
- POLITICS
- n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The
conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
- POLITICIAN
- n.
An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized
society is reared. When we wriggles he mistakes the agitation of
his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the
statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.
- POLYGAMY
- n.
A house of atonement, or expiatory chapel, fitted with several stools
of repentance, as distinguished from monogamy, which has but one.
- POPULIST
- n.
A fossil patriot of the early agricultural period, found in the
old red soapstone underlying Kansas; characterized by an uncommon
spread of ear, which some naturalists contend gave him the power
of flight, though Professors Morse and Whitney, pursuing independent
lines of thought, have ingeniously pointed out that had he possessed
it he would have gone elsewhere. In the picturesque speech of his
period, some fragments of which have come down to us, he was known
as "The Matter with Kansas."
- PORTABLE
- adj.
Exposed to a mutable ownership through vicissitudes of possession.
His light estate, if neither he did make it
Nor yet its former guardian forsake it,
Is portable improperly, I take it.
Worgum Slupsky
- PORTUGUESE
- n.pl.
A species of geese indigenous to Portugal. They are mostly without
feathers and imperfectly edible, even when stuffed with garlic.
- POSITIVE
- adj.
Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
- POSITIVISM
- n.
A philosophy that denies our knowledge of the Real and affirms our
ignorance of the Apparent. Its longest exponent is Comte, its broadest
Mill and its thickest Spencer.
- POSTERITY
- n.
An appellate court which reverses the judgment of a popular author's
contemporaries, the appellant being his obscure competitor.
- POTABLE
- n.
Suitable for drinking. Water is said to be potable; indeed, some
declare it our natural beverage, although even they find it palatable
only when suffering from the recurrent disorder known as thirst,
for which it is a medicine. Upon nothing has so great and diligent
ingenuity been brought to bear in all ages and in all countries,
except the most uncivilized, as upon the invention of substitutes
for water. To hold that this general aversion to that liquid has
no basis in the preservative instinct of the race is to be unscientific
-- and without science we are as the snakes and toads.
- POVERTY
- n.
A file provided for the teeth of the rats of reform. The number
of plans for its abolition equals that of the reformers who suffer
from it, plus that of the philosophers who know nothing about it.
Its victims are distinguished by possession of all the virtues and
by their faith in leaders seeking to conduct them into a prosperity
where they believe these to be unknown.
- PRAY
- v.
To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a
single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
- PRE-ADAMITE
- n.
One of an experimental and apparently unsatisfactory race of antedated
Creation and lived under conditions not easily conceived. Melsius
believed them to have inhabited "the Void" and to have
been something intermediate between fishes and birds. Little its
known of them beyond the fact that they supplied Cain with a wife
and theologians with a controversy.
- PRECEDENT
- n.
In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence
of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge
may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing
as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only
to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those
in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the
trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble
attitude of a dirigible arbitrament.
- PRECIPITATE
- adj.
Anteprandial.
Precipitate in all, this sinner
Took action first, and then his dinner.
Judibras
- PRECEDENT
- n.
In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence
of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge
may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing
as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only
to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those
in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the
trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble
attitude of a dirigible arbitrament.
- PRECIPITATE
- adj.
Anteprandial.
Precipitate in all, this sinner
Took action first, and then his dinner.
Judibras
- PREDESTINATION
- n.
The doctrine that all things occur according to programme. This
doctrine should not be confused with that of foreordination, which
means that all things are programmed, but does not affirm their
occurrence, that being only an implication from other doctrines
by which this is entailed. The difference is great enough to have
deluged Christendom with ink, to say nothing of the gore. With the
distinction of the two doctrines kept well in mind, and a reverent
belief in both, one may hope to escape perdition if spared.
- PREDICAMENT
- n.
The wage of consistency.
- PREDILECTION
- n.
The preparatory stage of disillusion.
- PRE-EXISTENCE
- n.
An unnoted factor in creation.
- PREFERENCE
- n.
A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that
one thing is better than another.
An ancient philosopher, expounding his conviction that life is no
better than death, was asked by a disciple why, then, he did not die.
"Because," he replied, "death is no better than life."
It is longer.
- PREHISTORIC
- adj.
Belonging to an early period and a museum. Antedating the art and
practice of perpetuating falsehood.
He lived in a period prehistoric,
When all was absurd and phantasmagoric.
Born later, when Clio, celestial recorded,
Set down great events in succession and order,
He surely had seen nothing droll or fortuitous
In anything here but the lies that she threw at us.
Orpheus Bowen
- PREJUDICE
- n.
A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
- PRELATE
- n.
A church officer having a superior degree of holiness and a fat
preferment. One of Heaven's aristocracy. A gentleman of God.
- PREROGATIVE
- n.
A sovereign's right to do wrong.
- PRESBYTERIAN
- n.
One who holds the conviction that the government authorities of
the Church should be called presbyters.
- PRESCRIPTION
- n.
A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with
least harm to the patient.
- PRESENT
- n.
That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from
the realm of hope.
- PRESENTABLE
- adj.
Hideously appareled after the manner of the time and place.
In Boorioboola-Gha a man is presentable on occasions of ceremony
if he have his abdomen painted a bright blue and wear a cow's tail; in
New York he may, if it please him, omit the paint, but after sunset he
must wear two tails made of the wool of a sheep and dyed black.
- PRESIDE
- v.
To guide the action of a deliberative body to a desirable result.
In Journalese, to perform upon a musical instrument; as, "He
presided at the piccolo."
The Headliner, holding the copy in hand,
Read with a solemn face:
"The music was very uncommonly grand --
The best that was every provided,
For our townsman Brown presided
At the organ with skill and grace."
The Headliner discontinued to read,
And, spread the paper down
On the desk, he dashed in at the top of the screed:
"Great playing by President Brown."
Orpheus Bowen
- PRESIDENCY
- n.
The greased pig in the field game of American politics.
- PRESIDENT
- n.
The leading figure in a small group of men of whom -- and of whom
only -- it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen
did not want any of them for President.
If that's an honor surely 'tis a greater
To have been a simple and undamned spectator.
Behold in me a man of mark and note
Whom no elector e'er denied a vote! --
An undiscredited, unhooted gent
Who might, for all we know, be President
By acclimation. Cheer, ye varlets, cheer --
I'm passing with a wide and open ear!
Jonathan Fomry
- PREVARICATOR
- n.
A liar in the caterpillar estate.
- PRICE
- n.
Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear of conscience
in demanding it.
- PRIMATE
- n.
The head of a church, especially a State church supported by involuntary
contributions. The Primate of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury,
an amiable old gentleman, who occupies Lambeth Palace when living
and Westminster Abbey when dead. He is commonly dead.
- PRISON
- n.
A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us that --
"Stone walls do not a prison make,"
but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and the
moral instructor is no garden of sweets.
- PRIVATE
- n.
A military gentleman with a field-marshal's baton in his knapsack
and an impediment in his hope.
- PROBOSCIS
- n.
The rudimentary organ of an elephant which serves him in place of
the knife-and-fork that Evolution has as yet denied him. For purposes
of humor it is popularly called a trunk.
Asked how he knew that an elephant was going on a journey, the
illustrious Jo. Miller cast a reproachful look upon his tormentor, and
answered, absently: "When it is ajar," and threw himself from a high
promontory into the sea. Thus perished in his pride the most famous
humorist of antiquity, leaving to mankind a heritage of woe! No
successor worthy of the title has appeared, though Mr. Edward bok, of
The Ladies' Home Journal, is much respected for the purity and
sweetness of his personal character.
- PROJECTILE
- n.
The final arbiter in international disputes. Formerly these disputes
were settled by physical contact of the disputants, with such simple
arguments as the rudimentary logic of the times could supply --
the sword, the spear, and so forth. With the growth of prudence
in military affairs the projectile came more and more into favor,
and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous. Its capital
defect is that it requires personal attendance at the point of propulsion.
- PROOF
- n.
Evidence having a shade more of plausibility than of unlikelihood.
The testimony of two credible witnesses as opposed to that of only
one.
- PROOF-READER
- n.
A malefactor who atones for making your writing nonsense by permitting
the compositor to make it unintelligible.
- PROPERTY
- n.
Any material thing, having no particular value, that may be held
by A against the cupidity of B. Whatever gratifies the passion for
possession in one and disappoints it in all others. The object of
man's brief rapacity and long indifference.
- PROPHECY
- n.
The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.
- PROSPECT
- n.
An outlook, usually forbidding. An expectation, usually forbidden.
Blow, blow, ye spicy breezes --
O'er Ceylon blow your breath,
Where every prospect pleases,
Save only that of death.
Bishop Sheber
- PROVIDENTIAL
- adj.
Unexpectedly and conspicuously beneficial to the person so describing
it.
- PRUDE
- n.
A bawd hiding behind the back of her demeanor.
- PUBLISH
- n.
In literary affairs, to become the fundamental element in a cone
of critics.
- PUSH
- n.
One of the two things mainly conducive to success, especially in
politics. The other is Pull.
- PYRRHONISM
- n.
An ancient philosophy, named for its inventor. It consisted of an
absolute disbelief in everything but Pyrrhonism. Its modern professors
have added that.
-
Q
- QUEEN
- n.
A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through
whom it is ruled when there is not.
- QUILL
- n.
An implement of torture yielded by a goose and commonly wielded
by an ass. This use of the quill is now obsolete, but its modern
equivalent, the steel pen, is wielded by the same everlasting
Presence.
- QUIVER
- n.
A portable sheath in which the ancient statesman and the aboriginal
lawyer carried their lighter arguments.
He extracted from his quiver,
Did the controversial Roman,
An argument well fitted
To the question as submitted,
Then addressed it to the liver,
Of the unpersuaded foeman.
Oglum P. Boomp
- QUIXOTIC
- adj.
Absurdly chivalric, like Don Quixote. An insight into the beauty
and excellence of this incomparable adjective is unhappily denied
to him who has the misfortune to know that the gentleman's name
is pronounced Ke-ho-tay.
When ignorance from out of our lives can banish
Philology, 'tis folly to know Spanish.
Juan Smith
- QUORUM
- n.
A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have
their own way and their own way of having it. In the United States
Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee on Finance
and a messenger from the White House; in the House of Representatives,
of the Speaker and the devil.
- QUOTATION
- n.
The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words
erroneously repeated.
Intent on making his quotation truer,
He sought the page infallible of Brewer,
Then made a solemn vow that we would be
Condemned eternally. Ah, me, ah, me!
Stumpo Gaker
- QUOTIENT
- n.
A number showing how many times a sum of money belonging to one
person is contained in the pocket of another -- usually about
as many times as it can be got there.
- TOP
R
- RABBLE
- n.
In a republic, those who exercise a supreme authority tempered
by fraudulent elections. The rabble is like the sacred Simurgh,
of Arabian fable -- omnipotent on condition that it do nothing.
(The word is Aristocratese, and has no exact equivalent in our
tongue, but means, as nearly as may be, "soaring swine.")
- RACK
- n.
An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuading devotees
of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call to the
unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is
now held in light popular esteem.
- RANK
- n.
Relative elevation in the scale of human worth.
He held at court a rank so high
That other noblemen asked why.
"Because," 'twas answered, "others lack
His skill to scratch the royal back."
Aramis Jukes
- RANSOM
- n.
The purchase of that which neither belongs to the seller, nor
can belong to the buyer. The most unprofitable of investments.
- RAPACITY
- n.
Providence without industry. The thrift of power.
- RAREBIT
- n.
A Welsh rabbit, in the speech of the humorless, who point out
that it is not a rabbit. To whom it may be solemnly explained
that the comestible known as toad-in-a-hole is really not a toad,
and that riz-de-veau a la financiere is not the smile of
a calf prepared after the recipe of a she banker.
- RASCAL
- n.
A fool considered under another aspect.
- RASCALITY
- n.
Stupidity militant. The activity of a clouded intellect.
- RASH
- adj.
Insensible to the value of our advice.
"Now lay your bet with mine, nor let
These gamblers take your cash."
"Nay, this child makes no bet." "Great snakes!
How can you be so rash?"
Bootle P. Gish
- RATIONAL
- adj.
Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience
and reflection.
- RATTLESNAKE
- n.
Our prostrate brother, Homo ventrambulans.
- RAZOR
- n.
An instrument used by the Caucasian to enhance his beauty, by
the Mongolian to make a guy of himself, and by the Afro-American
to affirm his worth.
- REACH
- n.
The radius of action of the human hand. The area within which
it is possible (and customary) to gratify directly the propensity
to provide.
This is a truth, as old as the hills,
That life and experience teach:
The poor man suffers that keenest of ills,
An impediment of his reach.
G.J.
- READING
- n.
The general body of what one reads. In our country it consists,
as a rule, of Indiana novels, short stories in "dialect"
and humor in slang.
We know by one's reading
His learning and breeding;
By what draws his laughter
We know his Hereafter.
Read nothing, laugh never --
The Sphinx was less clever!
Jupiter Muke
- RADICALISM
- n.
The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.
- RADIUM
- n.
A mineral that gives off heat and stimulates the organ that a
scientist is a fool with.
- RAILROAD
- n.
The chief of many mechanical devices enabling us to get away from
where we are to wher we are no better off. For this purpose the
railroad is held in highest favor by the optimist, for it permits
him to make the transit with great expedition.
- RAMSHACKLE
- adj.
Pertaining to a certain order of architecture, otherwise known
as the Normal American. Most of the public buildings of the United
States are of the Ramshackle order, though some of our earlier
architects preferred the Ironic. Recent additions to the White
House in Washington are Theo-Doric, the ecclesiastic order of
the Dorians. They are exceedingly fine and cost one hundred dollars
a brick.
- REALISM
- n.
The art of depicting nature as it is seem by toads. The charm
suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by
a measuring-worm.
- REALITY
- n.
The dream of a mad philosopher. That which would remain in the
cupel if one should assay a phantom. The nucleus of a vacuum.
- REALLY
- adv.
Apparently.
- REAR
- n.
In American military matters, that exposed part of the army that
is nearest to Congress.
- REASON
- v.i.
To weight probabilities in the scales of desire.
- REASON
- n.
Propensitate of prejudice.
- REASONABLE
- adj.
Accessible to the infection of our own opinions. Hospitable to
persuasion, dissuasion and evasion.
- REBEL
- n.
A proponent of a new misrule who has failed to establish it.
- RECOLLECT
- v.
To recall with additions something not previously known.
- RECONCILIATION
- n.
A suspension of hostilities. An armed truce for the purpose of
digging up the dead.
- RECONSIDER
- v.
To seek a justification for a decision already made.
- RECOUNT
- n.
In American politics, another throw of the dice, accorded to the
player against whom they are loaded.
- RECREATION
- n.
A particular kind of dejection to relieve a general fatigue.
- RECRUIT
- n.
A person distinguishable from a civilian by his uniform and from
a soldier by his gait.
Fresh from the farm or factory or street,
His marching, in pursuit or in retreat,
Were an impressive martial spectacle
Except for two impediments -- his feet.
Thompson Johnson
- RECTOR
- n.
In the Church of England, the Third Person of the parochial Trinity,
the Cruate and the Vicar being the other two.
- REDEMPTION
- n.
Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through
their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine
of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religion,
and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting
life in which to try to understand it.
We must awake Man's spirit from his sin,
And take some special measure for redeeming it;
Though hard indeed the task to get it in
Among the angels any way but teaming it,
Or purify it otherwise than steaming it.
I'm awkward at Redemption -- a beginner:
My method is to crucify the sinner.
Golgo Brone
- REDRESS
- n.
Reparation without satisfaction.
Among the Anglo-Saxon a subject conceiving himself wronged by the
king was permitted, on proving his injury, to beat a brazen image of
the royal offender with a switch that was afterward applied to his own
naked back. The latter rite was performed by the public hangman, and
it assured moderation in the plaintiff's choice of a switch.
- RED-SKIN
- n.
A North American Indian, whose skin is not red -- at least not
on the outside.
- REDUNDANT
- adj.
Superfluous; needless; de trop.
The Sultan said: "There's evidence abundant
To prove this unbelieving dog redundant."
To whom the Grand Vizier, with mien impressive,
Replied: "His head, at least, appears excessive."
Habeeb Suleiman
Mr. Debs is a redundant citizen.
Theodore Roosevelt
- REFERENDUM
- n.
A law for submission of proposed legislation to a popular vote
to learn the nonsensus of public opinion.
- REFLECTION
- n.
An action of the mind whereby we obtain a clearer view of our
relation to the things of yesterday and are able to avoid the
perils that we shall not again encounter.
- REFORM
- v.
A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation.
- REFUGE
- n.
Anything assuring protection to one in peril. Moses and Joshua
provided six cities of refuge -- Bezer, Golan, Ramoth, Kadesh,
Schekem and Hebron -- to which one who had taken life inadvertently
could flee when hunted by relatives of the deceased. This admirable
expedient supplied him with wholesome exercise and enabled them
to enjoy the pleasures of the chase; whereby the soul of the dead
man was appropriately honored by observations akin to the funeral
games of early Greece.
- REFUSAL
- n.
Denial of something desired; as an elderly maiden's hand in marriage,
to a rich and handsome suitor; a valuable franchise to a rich
corporation, by an alderman; absolution to an impenitent king,
by a priest, and so forth. Refusals are graded in a descending
scale of finality thus: the refusal absolute, the refusal condition,
the refusal tentative and the refusal feminine. The last is called
by some casuists the refusal assentive.
- REGALIA
- n.
Distinguishing insignia, jewels and costume of such ancient and
honorable orders as Knights of Adam; Visionaries of Detectable
Bosh; the Ancient Order of Modern Troglodytes; the League of Holy
Humbug; the Golden Phalanx of Phalangers; the Genteel Society
of Expurgated Hoodlums; the Mystic Alliances of Georgeous Regalians;
Knights and Ladies of the Yellow Dog; the Oriental Order of Sons
of the West; the Blatherhood of Insufferable Stuff; Warriors of
the Long Bow; Guardians of the Great Horn Spoon; the Band of Brutes;
the Impenitent Order of Wife-Beaters; the Sublime Legion of Flamboyant
Conspicuants; Worshipers at the Electroplated Shrine; Shining
Inaccessibles; Fee-Faw-Fummers of the inimitable Grip; Jannissaries
of the Broad-Blown Peacock; Plumed Increscencies of the Magic
Temple; the Grand Cabal of Able-Bodied Sedentarians; Associated
Deities of the Butter Trade; the Garden of Galoots; the Affectionate
Fraternity of Men Similarly Warted; the Flashing Astonishers;
Ladies of Horror; Cooperative Association for Breaking into the
Spotlight; Dukes of Eden; Disciples Militant of the Hidden Faith;
Knights-Champions of the Domestic Dog; the Holy Gregarians; the
Resolute Optimists; the Ancient Sodality of Inhospitable Hogs;
Associated Sovereigns of Mendacity; Dukes-Guardian of the Mystic
Cess-Pool; the Society for Prevention of Prevalence; Kings of
Drink; Polite Federation of Gents-Consequential; the Mysterious
Order of the Undecipherable Scroll; Uniformed Rank of Lousy Cats;
Monarchs of Worth and Hunger; Sons of the South Star; Prelates
of the Tub-and-Sword.
- RELIGION
- n.
A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature
of the Unknowable.
"What is your religion my son?" inquired the Archbishop of Rheims.
"Pardon, monseigneur," replied Rochebriant; "I am ashamed of it."
"Then why do you not become an atheist?"
"Impossible! I should be ashamed of atheism."
"In that case, monsieur, you should join the Protestants."
- RELIQUARY
- n.
A receptacle for such sacred objects as pieces of the true cross,
short-ribs of the saints, the ears of Balaam's ass, the lung of
the cock that called Peter to repentance and so forth. Reliquaries
are commonly of metal, and provided with a lock to prevent the
contents from coming out and performing miracles at unseasonable
times. A feather from the wing of the Angel of the Annunciation
once escaped during a sermon in Saint Peter's and so tickled the
noses of the congregation that they woke and sneezed with great
vehemence three times each. It is related in the "Gesta Sanctorum"
that a sacristan in the Canterbury cathedral surprised the head
of Saint Dennis in the library. Reprimanded by its stern custodian,
it explained that it was seeking a body of doctrine. This unseemly
levity so raged the diocesan that the offender was publicly anathematized,
thrown into the Stour and replaced by another head of Saint Dennis,
brought from Rome.
- RENOWN
- n.
A degree of distinction between notoriety and fame -- a little
more supportable than the one and a little more intolerable than
the other. Sometimes it is conferred by an unfriendly and inconsiderate
hand.
I touched the harp in every key,
But found no heeding ear;
And then Ithuriel touched me
With a revealing spear.
Not all my genius, great as 'tis,
Could urge me out of night.
I felt the faint appulse of his,
And leapt into the light!
W.J. Candleton
- REPARATION
- n.
Satisfaction that is made for a wrong and deducted from the satisfaction
felt in committing it.
- REPARTEE
- n.
Prudent insult in retort. Practiced by gentlemen with a constitutional
aversion to violence, but a strong disposition to offend. In a
war of words, the tactics of the North American Indian.
- REPENTANCE
- n.
The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. It is usually
manifest in a degree of reformation that is not inconsistent with
continuity of sin.
Desirous to avoid the pains of Hell,
You will repent and join the Church, Parnell?
How needless! -- Nick will keep you off the coals
And add you to the woes of other souls.
Jomater Abemy
- REPLICA
- n.
A reproduction of a work of art, by the artist that made the original.
It is so called to distinguish it from a "copy," which
is made by another artist. When the two are mae with equal skill
the replica is the more valuable, for it is supposed to be more
beautiful than it looks.
- REPORTER
- n.
A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with
a tempest of words.
"More dear than all my bosom knows, O thou
Whose 'lips are sealed' and will not disavow!"
So sang the blithe reporter-man as grew
Beneath his hand the leg-long "interview."
Barson Maith
- REPOSE
- v.i.
To cease from troubling.
- REPRESENTATIVE
- n.
In national politics, a member of the Lower House in this world,
and without discernible hope of promotion in the next.
- REPROBATION
- n.
In theology, the state of a luckless mortal prenatally damned.
The doctrine of reprobation was taught by Calvin, whose joy in
it was somewhat marred by the sad sincerity of his conviction
that although some are foredoomed to perdition, others are predestined
to salvation.
- REPUBLIC
- n.
A nation in which, the thing governing and the thing governed
being the same, there is only a permitted authority to enforce
an optional obedience. In a republic, the foundation of public
order is the ever lessening habit of submission inherited from
ancestors who, being truly governed, submitted because they had
to. There are as many kinds of republics as there are graduations
between the despotism whence they came and the anarchy whither
they lead.
- REQUIEM
- n.
A mass for the dead which the minor poets assure us the winds
sing o'er the graves of their favorites. Sometimes, by way of
providing a varied entertainment, they sing a dirge.
- RESIDENT
- adj.
Unable to leave.
- RESIGN
- v.t.
To renounce an honor for an advantage. To renounce an advantage
for a greater advantage.
'Twas rumored Leonard Wood had signed
A true renunciation
Of title, rank and every kind
Of military station --
Each honorable station.
By his example fired -- inclined
To noble emulation,
The country humbly was resigned
To Leonard's resignation --
His Christian resignation.
Politian Greame
- RESOLUTE
- adj.
Obstinate in a course that we approve.
- RESPECTABILITY
- n.
The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank
account.
- RESPIRATOR
- n.
An apparatus fitted over the nose and mouth of an inhabitant of
London, whereby to filter the visible universe in its passage
to the lungs.
- RESPITE
- n.
A suspension of hostilities against a sentenced assassin, to enable
the Executive to determine whether the murder may not have been
done by the prosecuting attorney. Any break in the continuity
of a disagreeable expectation.
Altgeld upon his incandescend bed
Lay, an attendant demon at his head.
"O cruel cook, pray grant me some relief --
Some respite from the roast, however brief."
"Remember how on earth I pardoned all
Your friends in Illinois when held in thrall."
"Unhappy soul! for that alone you squirm
O'er fire unquenched, a never-dying worm.
"Yet, for I pity your uneasy state,
Your doom I'll mollify and pains abate.
"Naught, for a season, shall your comfort mar,
Not even the memory of who you are."
Throughout eternal space dread silence fell;
Heaven trembled as Compassion entered Hell.
"As long, sweet demon, let my respite be
As, governing down here, I'd respite thee."
"As long, poor soul, as any of the pack
You thrust from jail consumed in getting back."
A genial chill affected Altgeld's hide
While they were turning him on t'other side.
Joel Spate Woop
- RESPLENDENT
- adj.
Like a simple American citizen beduking himself in his lodge,
or affirming his consequence in the Scheme of Things as an elemental
unit of a parade.
The Knights of Dominion were so resplendent in their velvet-
and-gold that their masters would hardly have known them.
"Chronicles of the Classes"
- RESPOND
- v.i.
To make answer, or disclose otherwise a consciousness of having
inspired an interest in what Herbert Spencer calls "external
coexistences," as Satan "squat like a toad" at
the ear of Eve, responded to the touch of the angel's spear. To
respond in damages is to contribute to the maintenance of the
plaintiff's attorney and, incidentally, to the gratification of
the plaintiff.
- RESPONSIBILITY
- n.
A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate,
Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was
customary to unload it upon a star.
Alas, things ain't what we should see
If Eve had let that apple be;
And many a feller which had ought
To set with monarchses of thought,
Or play some rosy little game
With battle-chaps on fields of fame,
Is downed by his unlucky star
And hollers: "Peanuts! -- here you are!"
"The Sturdy Beggar"
- RESTITUTIONS
- n.
The founding or endowing of universities and public libraries
by gift or bequest.
- RESTITUTOR
- n.
Benefactor; philanthropist.
- RETALIATION
- n.
The natural rock upon which is reared the Temple of Law.
- RETRIBUTION
- n.
A rain of fire-and-brimstone that falls alike upon the just and
such of the unjust as have not procured shelter by evicting them.
In the lines following, addressed to an Emperor in exile by Father
Gassalasca Jape, the reverend poet appears to hint his sense of the
improduence of turning about to face Retribution when it is talking
exercise:
What, what! Dom Pedro, you desire to go
Back to Brazil to end your days in quiet?
Why, what assurance have you 'twould be so?
'Tis not so long since you were in a riot,
And your dear subjects showed a will to fly at
Your throat and shake you like a rat. You know
That empires are ungrateful; are you certain
Republics are less handy to get hurt in?
- REVEILLE
- n.
A signal to sleeping soldiers to dream of battlefields no more,
but get up and have their blue noses counted. In the American
army it is ingeniously called "rev-e-lee," and to that
pronunciation our countrymen have pledged their lives, their misfortunes
and their sacred dishonor.
- REVELATION
- n.
A famous book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that
he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing.
- REVERENCE
- n.
The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man.
- REVIEW
- v.t.
To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it,
Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it)
At work upon a book, and so read out of it
The qualities that you have first read into it.
- REVOLUTION
- n.
In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. Specifically,
in American history, the substitution of the rule of an Administration
for that of a Ministry, whereby the welfare and happiness of the
people were advanced a full half-inch. Revolutions are usually
accompanied by a considerable effusion of blood, but are accounted
worth it -- this appraisement being made by beneficiaries whose
blood had not the mischance to be shed. The French revolution
is of incalculable value to the Socialist of to-day; when he pulls
the string actuating its bones its gestures are inexpressibly
terrifying to gory tyrants suspected of fomenting law and order.
- RHADOMANCER
- n.
One who uses a divining-rod in prospecting for precious metals
in the pocket of a fool.
- RIBALDRY
- n.
Censorious language by another concerning oneself.
- RIBROASTER
- n.
Censorious language by oneself concerning another. The word is
of classical refinement, and is even said to have been used in
a fable by Georgius Coadjutor, one of the most fastidious writers
of the fifteenth century -- commonly, indeed, regarded as the
founder of the Fastidiotic School.
- RICE-WATER
- n.
A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popular novelists
and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize the conscience.
It is said to be rich in both obtundite and lethargine, and is
brewed in a midnight fog by a fat which of the Dismal Swamp.
- RICH
- adj.
Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the property of
the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious and
the luckless. That is the view that prevails in the underworld,
where the Brotherhood of Man finds its most logical development
and candid advocacy. To denizens of the midworld the word means
good and wise.
- RICHES
- n.
A gift from Heaven signifying, "This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased."
John D. Rockefeller
The reward of toil and virtue.
J.P. Morgan
The sayings of many in the hands of one.
Eugene Debs
To these excellent definitions the inspired lexicographer feels
that he can add nothing of value.
- RIDICULE
- n.
Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered
is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters
them. It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury
is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth -- a ridiculous
assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergone centuries of
ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What, for
example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrine of
Infant Respectability?
- RIGHT
- n.
Legitimate authority to be, to do or to have; as the right to
be a king, the right to do one's neighbor, the right to have measles,
and the like. The first of these rights was once universally believed
to be derived directly from the will of God; and this is still
sometimes affirmed in partibus infidelium outside the enlightened
realms of Democracy; as the well known lines of Sir Abednego Bink,
following:
By what right, then, do royal rulers rule?
Whose is the sanction of their state and pow'r?
He surely were as stubborn as a mule
Who, God unwilling, could maintain an hour
His uninvited session on the throne, or air
His pride securely in the Presidential chair.
Whatever is is so by Right Divine;
Whate'er occurs, God wills it so. Good land!
It were a wondrous thing if His design
A fool could baffle or a rogue withstand!
If so, then God, I say (intending no offence)
Is guilty of contributory negligence.
- RIGHTEOUSNESS
- n.
A sturdy virtue that was once found among the Pantidoodles inhabiting
the lower part of the peninsula of Oque. Some feeble attempts
were made by returned missionaries to introduce it into several
European countries, but it appears to have been imperfectly expounded.
An example of this faulty exposition is found in the only extant
sermon of the pious Bishop Rowley, a characteristic passage from
which is here given:
"Now righteousness consisteth not merely in a holy state of
mind, nor yet in performance of religious rites and obedience to
the letter of the law. It is not enough that one be pious and
just: one must see to it that others also are in the same state;
and to this end compulsion is a proper means. Forasmuch as my
injustice may work ill to another, so by his injustice may evil be
wrought upon still another, the which it is as manifestly my duty
to estop as to forestall mine own tort. Wherefore if I would be
righteous I am bound to restrain my neighbor, by force if needful,
in all those injurious enterprises from which, through a better
disposition and by the help of Heaven, I do myself restrain."
- RIME
- n.
Agreeing sounds in the terminals of verse, mostly bad. The verses
themselves, as distinguished from prose, mostly dull. Usually
(and wickedly) spelled "rhyme."
- RIMER
- n.
A poet regarded with indifference or disesteem.
The rimer quenches his unheeded fires,
The sound surceases and the sense expires.
Then the domestic dog, to east and west,
Expounds the passions burning in his breast.
The rising moon o'er that enchanted land
Pauses to hear and yearns to understand.
Mowbray Myles
- RIOT
- n.
A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.
- R.I.P.
- A
careless abbreviation of requiescat in pace, attesting
to indolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr.
Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than
reductus in pulvis.
- RITE
- n.
A religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, precept or
custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed
out of it.
- RITUALISM
- n.
A Dutch Garden of God where He may walk in rectilinear freedom,
keeping off the grass.
- ROAD
- n.
A strip of land along which one may pass from where it is too
tiresome to be to where it is futile to go.
All roads, howsoe'er they diverge, lead to Rome,
Whence, thank the good Lord, at least one leads back home.
Borey the Bald
- ROBBER
- n.
A candid man of affairs.
It is related of Voltaire that one night he and some traveling
companion lodged at a wayside inn. The surroundings were suggestive,
and after supper they agreed to tell robber stories in turn. "Once
there was a Farmer-General of the Revenues." Saying nothing more, he
was encouraged to continue. "That," he said, "is the story."
- ROMANCE
- n.
Fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of Things as They Are.
In the novel the writer's thought is tethered to probability,
as a domestic horse to the hitching-post, but in romance it ranges
at will over the entire region of the imagination -- free, lawless,
immune to bit and rein. Your novelist is a poor creature, as Carlyle
might say -- a mere reporter. He may invent his characters and
plot, but he must not imagine anything taking place that might
not occur, albeit his entire narrative is candidly a lie. Why
he imposes this hard condition on himself, and "drags at
each remove a lengthening chain" of his own forging he can
explain in ten thick volumes without illuminating by so much as
a candle's ray the black profound of his own ignorance of the
matter. There are great novels, for great writers have "laid
waste their powers" to write them, but it remains true that
far and away the most fascinating fiction that we have is "The
Thousand and One Nights."
- ROPE
- n.
An obsolescent appliance for reminding assassins that they too
are mortal. It is put about the neck and remains in place one's
whole life long. It has been largely superseded by a more complex
electrical device worn upon another part of the person; and this
is rapidly giving place to an apparatus known as the preachment.
- ROSTRUM
- n.
In Latin, the beak of a bird or the prow of a ship. In America,
a place from which a candidate for office energetically expounds
the wisdom, virtue and power of the rabble.
- ROUNDHEAD
- n.
A member of the Parliamentarian party in the English civil war
-- so called from his habit of wearing his hair short, whereas
his enemy, the Cavalier, wore his long. There were other points
of difference between them, but the fashion in hair was the fundamental
cause of quarrel. The Cavaliers were royalists because the king,
an indolent fellow, found it more convenient to let his hair grow
than to wash his neck. This the Roundheads, who were mostly barbers
and soap-boilers, deemed an injury to trade, and the royal neck
was therefore the object of their particular indignation. Descendants
of the belligerents now wear their hair all alike, but the fires
of animosity enkindled in that ancient strife smoulder to this
day beneath the snows of British civility.
- RUBBISH
- n.
Worthless matter, such as the religions, philosophies, literatures,
arts and sciences of the tribes infesting the regions lying due
south from Boreaplas.
- RUIN
- v.
To destroy. Specifically, to destroy a maid's belief in the virtue
of maids.
- RUM
- n.
Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in total abstainers.
- RUMOR
- n.
A favorite weapon of the assassins of character.
Sharp, irresistible by mail or shield,
By guard unparried as by flight unstayed,
O serviceable Rumor, let me wield
Against my enemy no other blade.
His be the terror of a foe unseen,
His the inutile hand upon the hilt,
And mine the deadly tongue, long, slender, keen,
Hinting a rumor of some ancient guilt.
So shall I slay the wretch without a blow,
Spare me to celebrate his overthrow,
And nurse my valor for another foe.
Joel Buxter
- RUSSIAN
- n.
A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. A Tartar
Emetic.
-
- TOP
-
- Next
|
|
