n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written his dictionary, comes to be considered "as one having authority," whereas his function is only to make a record, not to give a law. The natural servility of the human understanding having invested him with judicial power, surrenders its right of reason and submits itself to a chronicle as if it were a statute. Let the dictionary (for example) mark a good word as "obsolete" or "obsolescent" and few men thereafter venture to use it, whatever their need of it and however desirable its restoration to favor — whereby the process of impoverishment is accelerated and speech decays. On the contrary, the bold and discerning writer who, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense, has no following and is tartly reminded that "it isn't in the dictionary" — although down to the time of the first lexicographer (Heaven forgive him!) no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary. In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; when from the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their own meaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakspeare and a Bacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one end and slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardy preservation — sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion — the lexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation which his Creator had not created him to create.

---

God said: "Let Spirit perish into Form,"
And lexicographers arose, a swarm!
Thought fled and left her clothing, which they took,
And catalogued each garment in a book.
Now, from her leafy covert when she cries:
"Give me my clothes and I'll return," they rise
And scan the list, and say without compassion:
"Excuse us — they are mostly out of fashion."
—Sigismund Smith

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

has very little to do with canadian bacon or british bacon

Letters indicating the degree Legumptionorum Doctor, one learned in laws, gifted with legal gumption. Some suspicion is cast upon this derivation by the fact that the title was formerly ££.d., and conferred only upon gentlemen distinguished for their wealth. At the date of this writing Columbia University is considering the expediency of making another degree for clergymen, in place of the old D.D. — Damnator Diaboli. The new honor will be known as Sanctorum Custos, and written $$.¢. The name of the Rev. John Satan has been suggested as a suitable recipient by a lover of consistency, who points out that Professor Harry Thurston Peck has long enjoyed the advantage of a degree.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

n.
1. A certain person who is much in society, but whom one does not meet. A bad one.
2. The Adversary of Souls, considered under one of his many charming aspects.


(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(n.) code words used to make one's job sound more difficult than it, in fact, is

word used when you've already used "potato" and don't want to say the same word twice.

A telephone that is easy to bring with you and runs on batterys (maby chargeable). It can often send text messages and maby has a camera.

(also: telephone)
(also: text messages)

n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(n.) one who is foolish or contemptible; the word, originally Hebrew, is widely recognized as an inherently funny one to say

The moon is the only natural sattelite of the earth, formed 4.5 billion years ago by a rock the size of mars called theia colliding with the earth, the resulting debris formed the current moon.

a one-off decision by lawmakers to let democracy determine the course of governance.

One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a sour-spirited knave, and his every victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.

---

Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
In the dead language of a mummy's tongue,
For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well —
Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
—Barney Stims
(also: humor)

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

time with the only goal to make yourself/others happy.
some people have hard time keeping these two groups in ballance.

Talented actor, humble, charitable, empathetic, flawed and damaged from childhood abuse, struggling with addiction, introvert, artistic

(also: amber heard)

(n.) an attempt to locate and kill an animal, usually to eat. much of human history has been our attempt to get the upper hand against those damn animals

(v.) to do the thing i just said

a genre or design aesthetic of science fiction based around the cultural fears that were endemic in the 1980s and 1990s- urban sprawl, rampant pollution, corporate deregulation, japan, etc.

cyberpunk probably originates with gibson's "neuromancer" series but the classic visual look (oppressive skyscrapers, neon lights, sordid slums, devastated and bleak environments) probably comes from "blade runner."

the main conceit of cyberpunk is 'high-tech, low-humanity;' technology is pervasive, obtrusive, integrated into every aspect of our lives, but in contrast to the optimistic sci-fi of earlier ages, it will not be able to address our myriad social ills. in other words, things will look very cyber, but people will still be punks.

inspired numerous other retrofuturism variants including steampunk, dieselpunk, atompunk, solarpunk, and other nonsense

Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.

(n.) /ˌmaʊnt ˈɛvərɪst/ - The highest mountain in the world, located in the Himalayas between Nepal and Tibet. Its summit reaches an elevation of 29,032 feet (8,849 meters) above sea level, making it a challenging and dangerous feat to climb. Despite its treacherous reputation, climbers from all over the world attempt to conquer the mountain every year, drawn by the allure of standing at the top of the world and the bragging rights that come with it.

(also: color)