Quotes: DICTIONARY TERMS
|
AMBIGUITY, n. [1] the lack of clarity in speech -- or, perhaps, something else; [2] the language of politics and statesmanship DICTIONARY, n. [1] the only place where: (a) divorce comes before marriage, and (b) success comes before work; [2] a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a more useful work {Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary} HUMOR, n. [1] a feat, after the invention of language, which is man's proudest achievement ITALIC, n. [1] the language spoken by ancient Italians KANGAROO, n. [1] is actually "what did you say?" in the language of the Australian natives. {Captain Cook's mistake} KINDNESS, n. [1] a language that the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear LANGUAGE, n. [1] the most important form of intercourse practiced by man -- next to sex; [2] a system which was developed to allow humanity to complain without killing or maiming. LINGUIST, n. [1] a talented fellow who has mastered the ability to make mistakes in more than one language; [2] a person who can be misunderstood in many languages LOVE, n. [1] the most slippery word in the human language -- used by knaves to seduce, by fools for comfort, and by most men to placate the female of the species OFFICIALESE, n. [1] a government language where you can understand the words, but not the sentences PHILOSOPHY, n. [1] a system of labeling and redefining our language to allow us to rescue the absurd POET(S) n. [1] an individual so in love with language who can, for the sake of art, survive any hardship -- except a misprint RIOT, n. [1] the language of the unheard SLANDER, n. [1] to lie about someone -- or tell the truth SLANG, n. [1] a language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to work; [2] the one stream of poetry which is continually flowing outward SLOGAN, n. [1] a good old American substitute for the facts; [2] our modern commercial replacement for quality; [3] a politician's banner, often changed, but always held high above the voters brains SPECIALIST, n. [1] a learned person who can name a horse in nine langu- ages and buys a cow to ride YIDDISH, n. [1] a tongue that never takes its tongue out of its cheek; [2] the rich traditional language of organized complaint |