The Devil's Dictionary

437 Pages·1999·1.55 MB·English

by  Ambrose Bierce

e Unabridged
Devil’s Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce
edited by
David E. Shultz and S.T. Joshi
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The
E e
Unabridged
Devil’s
Dictionary
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a m b r o s e b i e r c e
edited by david e. schultz & s. t. joshi
The
E e
Unabridged
Devil’s
Dictionary
pagtoplaceTPART
TheUniversityofGeorgiaPress Athens&London
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q2000bythe
UniversityofGeorgiaPress
Athens,Georgia30602
Allrightsreserved
IllustrationqEdLindlof
SetinCarterConeGalliardbyG&STypesetters
PrintedandboundbyMaple-Vail
Thepaperinthisbookmeetstheguidelinesforpermanence
anddurabilityoftheCommitteeonProductionGuidelinesfor
BookLongevityoftheCouncilonLibraryResources.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
04 03 02 01 00 c 5 4 3 2 1
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bierce,Ambrose,1842–1914?
Theunabridgeddevil’sdictionary/byAmbroseBierce;editedby
DavidE.SchultzandS.T.Joshi.
p. cm.
Rev.ed.of:Devil’sdictionary.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn0-8203-2196-6(alk.paper)
1. Englishlanguage—Dictionaries—Humor. 2. English
language—Semantics—Humor. 3. Vocabulary—Humor.
I. Schultz,DavidE.,1952– II. Joshi,S.T.,1958–
III. Bierce,Ambrose,1842–1914?Devil’sdictionary. IV. Title.
ps1097.d432000b
4238.02807—dc21 99-087396
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataavailable
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contents
acknowledgments vii
introduction ix
list of abbreviations xxxi
TheUnabridgedDevil’sDictionary 1
appendix 247
notes 271
list of appearances of definitions 349
bibliography 383
index 391
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acknowledgments
WeconductedmostofourresearchattheBancroftLibrary,UniversityofCali-
fornia,Berkeley;BeineckeRareBookandManuscriptLibrary,YaleUniversity;
Huntington Library and Art Gallery; Los Angeles Public Library; New York
PublicLibrary;NewYorkUniversityLibrary;PrincetonUniversityLibrary;San
FranciscoPublicLibrary;andO.MeredithWilsonLibrary,UniversityofMin-
nesota,Minneapolis.WearegratefultolibrariansattheMilwaukee(Wisconsin)
PublicLibrary;ArizonaStateUniversity(Tempe);St.Cloud(Minnesota)State
University; and New York Public Library for their assistance. Leslie Crabtree
and Alan Gullette assisted in obtainingsomeofthematerialusedinpreparing
thisvolume.JohnD.Beatty,LawrenceI.Berkove,JonathanJohnson,andGary
Pokornyprovidedinformationforsomeoftheannotations.
WearegratefultotheBancroftLibrary,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,for
permissiontoprintextractsfrom‘‘Fromwhichtoselectandprepareadditionsto
‘TheDevil’sDictionary’ifneeded’’;andtotheHuntingtonLibraryandArtGal-
lery,SanMarino,California,forpermissiontoquoteextractsfromthetypeset-
tingcopyofTheDevil’sDictionary.
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introduction
Any writer of worth, no matter how large or varied his or her literarycorpus,
typicallyhasasingleworkthatencapsulatespreciselyhisorherworldviewand
majorthemesorconcerns.Thatpiecemayormaynotbethewriter’sverybest
performance,butitistheonebywhichhisorheressentialthoughtcanbemost
readilyidentified.AmbroseBierce’s‘‘WhatISawofShiloh’’and‘‘AnOccurrence
at Owl Creek Bridge’’ may be his greatest works, but The Devil’s Dictionary is
quintessential Bierce. In fact, his life and career can be summarized in a single
sentence:
Cynic,n. Ablackguardwhosefaultyvisionseesthingsastheyare,notas
theyoughttobe.
Therecanbenomistakingthatthisdefinition,lodgedbetween‘‘Curse’’and
‘‘Damn’’ in the first edition of his celebrated dictionary (nestled somewhatin-
nocuouslyhereinbetween‘‘Custard’’and‘‘Dad’’),isBierce’smanifesto;thathe
defiantly and proudly equates the ‘‘blackguard’’ withhimself;andthatitisnot
hisvisionthatis‘‘faulty’’buteveryoneelse’s.Thecodatothedefinition—‘‘Hence
the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his
vision’’—is the purest distillation of his vocation: to sing out thetruth,loudly
and unflinchingly, no matter the cost. The removal of one’s organs of sight
merely thwarts one’s ability to observe firsthand the misdeeds of one’s fellow
human beings,who continueto commit themisdeeds.Bierce’smissionwasto
eradicatethemisdeeds.
Bierce was not one to write directly of personal matters in his work. In his
lateryearshepennedafewautobiographicalsketches,mostlyabouthisCivilWar
daysandotherselectcolorfulmoments,buthewrotenosustainedaccountofhis
life,whichheconsideredirrelevanttotheevaluationofhiswork.Hisentirejour-
nalisticcorpus canbe readas akindofautobiography—notadetailedchrono-
logicalrecordoftheprimaryeventsofhislife,forhislifewaslargelydedicated
tothesolitaryworkofwriting,butinsteadarecordofthelifeofthemind.Even