The Devil's Dictionary
by Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce (Meigs County, Ohio, 1842 - Mexico 1914?). American satiric writer. Bierce wrote a large number of short stories and articles for several San Francisco magazines. It has been said that he produced at least three million words.
The Devil's Dictionary collects a column published in the Wasp magazine between 1881 and 1887. Bierce tried some other titles before: Comic Dictionary, Idiot's Unabridged Dictionary and Webster's Improved Dictionary.
A sample quote from the Devil's Dictionary:
DICTIONARY, n. 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.
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