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THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

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Jack Satan smelts the dead to make new bullets.<br />

<strong>Ambrose</strong> <strong>Bierce</strong> The Devil’s Dictionary<br />

LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.<br />

LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear<br />

and his faith in your patience.<br />

LEGACY, n. A gift from one who is legging it out of this vale of<br />

tears.<br />

LEONINE, adj. Unlike a menagerie lion. Leonine verses are those in<br />

which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end, as<br />

in this famous passage from Bella Peeler Silcox:<br />

The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades.<br />

Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores!"<br />

It should be explained that Mrs. Silcox does not undertake to<br />

teach pronunciation of the Greek and Latin tongues. Leonine verses<br />

are so called in honor of a poet named Leo, whom prosodists appear to<br />

find a pleasure in believing to have been the first to discover that a<br />

rhyming couplet could be run into a single line.<br />

LETTUCE, n. An herb of the genus _Lactuca_, "Wherewith," says that<br />

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