In this dictionary, Ambrose Bierce compiles the canon of human weaknesses, prejudices, absurdities and habits. The subtle, nasty definitions of words expose the very aspect in them that normal consciousness hypocritically tries to cover up. Over 1,000 barbed and brilliant definitions by the 19th-century journalist and satirist often called the American Swift.
First published as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906) and later reissued under its preferred name in 1911, Bierce's notorious collection of barbed definitions forcibly contradicts Samuel Johnson's earlier definition of a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. There was nothing harmless about Ambrose Bierce and the words he shaped into verbal pitchforks a century ago can still draw blood today.
The American writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) had not only a sharp tongue, but also a pointed feather. He was one of the most dazzling figures in 19th-century literary America, the personified provocation and a hateful cynic who left no subject out. No matter whether it was about general, small or great weaknesses of the human race, nothing was sacred to his mockery. He became famous with his Devil's Dictionary, a collection of gallant and pointedly spiritual aphorisms.