The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

arts · EN-US

RESPECTABILITY, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank account.BEAUTY, n. The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.If these caustic definitions catch your fancy, you'd enjoy The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.He was a columnist with the San Francisco News Letter, a weekly paper which was a business publication aimed at the corporate sector. However, it had a column entitled Town Crier which featured satirical asides and comments in a lighter vein. Bierce went on to edit the paper. His acerbic wit and pungent take on the events of the day earned him the sobriquet of “The Laughing Devil of San Francisco.” At one point, Bierce found himself short of material for the paper and since he had just bought a copy of Webster's Dictionary, he hit upon the idea of creating a comic dictionary, with a sardonic take on word definitions. In his preface, Bierc