The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary - translations have also been published under the title From the Dictionary of the devil, the original title is The Devil 's Dictionary - is a collection of satirical aphorisms by Ambrose Bierce in 1911 you usually gathered black humorous or sarcastic definitions for 1000 words..

For example, Bierce defined "brain" with: " An organ with which we think we think " (original: Brain, n An apparatus with Which We did think we think).

History

Ambrose Bierce was since 1868 - long before the book was published - the News Letter, a serious weekly magazine in San Francisco, the editor of a satirical column entitled The Town Crier. There he wrote texts full of black humor and became known as laughing devil ( " laughing devil " ) from San Francisco.

When he ran out a year later, the issues and he bought a Webster dictionary, the first time it occurred to him to write a satirical dictionary. After his three-year stay in London Bierce sent in 1875 two applications were received under pseudonyms and added 48 satirical word definitions added to retrieve his old job at the News Letter. He was refused.

In his next magazine The Argonaut no aphorisms from Bierce 's collection appeared; only after he had moved to the weekly magazine Wasp, he wrote again new word definitions that quickly became popular. From 1881 to 1886 so 88 editions were added, each with 15-20 definitions.

Due to the popularity he published in 1906 the Cynic 's Word Book ( Dictionary of the cynic ) the publisher Doubleday, comprised of about 500 definitions for words starting with A to L. Another 500 words with the initials M to Z came in 1911 in the seventh edition of The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce ( The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce ) added.

1967 an expanded version The Devil's Dictionary by Ernest J. Hopkins was released, which also contained the word definitions of Bierce from the weeklies.

Selected Examples

• " Abstainers: A weak person who yields to the temptation to deny themselves pleasure. A Vollabstinenzler keeps abstinent from everything except abstinence, but especially them, to stay out of other people's affairs. " ( " Abstainer, n A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and Especially from inactivity in the affairs of others. " )
• " Absurdity: An expression that contradicts their own view of obvious. " ( " Absurdity, n A statement or was manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. " )
• " Admiration: Our polite recognition of others resemblance with ourselves. " ( " Admiration, n Our polite recognition of another 's resemblance to ourselves. " )
• " Diagnosis: The doctor's prediction of disease progression, based on the pulse rate and the purse of the patient. " ( "Diagnosis, n A physician 's forecast of the disease by the patient 's pulse and purse. " )
• " Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for the sake of their own country. " ( " Diplomacy, n The patriotic art of lying for one 's country. " )
• " Financial Accounting: The art or science, income or funds to manage so that the manager has the most. " ( "Finance, n The art or science of managing Revenues and resources for the best advantage of the manager. " )
• " Novel: A baggy short story. " ( " Novel, n A short story padded. " )
• " Native People of little value, stand in the way of the land of a newly discovered country. They are not long in the way; then they fertilize. " ( " Aborigines, n Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly Discovered They soon cease to cumber country; . They fertilize. " )
• " Truth: Imaginative mixing of desirability and appearance. Truth is the only goal of philosophy; this is the oldest occupation of the human mind and has good prospects fortzudauern until the end of time with increasing activity. " ( "Truth, n An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, Which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and Has a fair prospect of existing with Increasing activity to the end of time. " )
• " Cynic: Is a scoundrel whose faulty perception sees things as they are, rather than as they should be. " ( " Cynic, n A blackguard Whose faulty vision sees things as They Are, As They ought not to be. " )

Book editions

• From the Dictionary of the devil. With an afterword by Hugo Loetscher and illustrations by Willi Rieser. Sanssouci, Zurich 1964
• From the Dictionary of the devil. Selection, translation and afterword by Dieter E. Zimmer. Island (IB 890 ), Frankfurt am Main 1966; Paperback ibid. 1980, ISBN 3-458-32140-3
• From The Devil 's Dictionary - The dictionary is the devil. Bilingual. dtv, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-423-09183-5
• The Devil's little dictionary. Snatched from his grasp and into German by Hans Petersen. Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-359-00058-7
• The Devil's Dictionary. Word - treasures. Newly translated by Gisbert Haefs. Haffmanns, Zurich, 1986; Area, Erftstadt 2006, ISBN 3-89996-865-4
• The Devil's Dictionary. Illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Bloomsbury, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7475-9410-9 (current original edition )