2011年11月29日 星期二

Devil's Dictionary

http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/devils/m.html
佈文章
The Devil's Dictionary 台灣的版本似乎從日譯本
http://www005.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kareha/trans/dd_r.htm


轉譯
錯誤相當多
當時有許多深的拉丁文等
日本人也弄錯
MENDACIOUS, adj.
Addicted to rhetoric.
adj.
  1. Lying; untruthful: a mendacious child.
  2. False; untrue: a mendacious statement. See synonyms at dishonest.

[From Latin mendācium, lie, from mendāx, mendāc-, mendacious.]


MIND, n.
A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with. From the Latin mens, a fact unknown to that honest shoe-seller, who, observing that his learned competitor over the way had displayed the motto "Mens conscia recti," emblazoned his own front with the words "Men's, women's and children's conscia recti."



mendaciously men·da'cious·ly adv.

The Enlarged Devil’s Dictionary, Penguin, 1968.



Devil's Dictionary

Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce
Satirical, cynical, quirky and tongue-in-cheek definitions by a 19th-century writer. Wise and witty, but not meant to be taken seriously!
On this page: labor to lyre.

Search inside for:
Title Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z



Vale of tears, leg out, Devil's Dictionary: legacy

The so-called legacy airline carriers — such as Delta Air Lines, British Airways, and Air France — should be well positioned to take advantage of globalization, but due to strict regulations, globalization is not an opportunity, but a grave threat. To compete with low-cost carriers and rising stars in developing regions, legacy carriers must share costs and services with their global partners, build operating models that can support their vision, and prepare for the potential of a more globalized market.



legacy

n., pl.,
-cies.
  1. Money or property bequeathed to another by will.
  2. Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past: a legacy of religious freedom. See synonyms at heritage.

[Middle English legacie, office of a deputy, from Old French, from Medieval Latin lēgātia, from Latin lēgātus, past participle of lēgāre, to depute, bequeath.]




Devil's Dictionary:

legacy


A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

A gift from one who is legging it out of this vale of tears.



leg

intr.v. Informal,
legged, leg·ging, legs.
To go on foot; walk or run. Often used with the indefinite it: Because we missed the bus, we had to leg it across town.



Vale of tears is a phrase based upon the Christian religion that refers to Earthly sorrows that are to be left behind when one enters heaven. "Vale" means a valley or a dale. The phrase comes from the Latin in Psalm 84:6 in the Vulgate Bible: "in valle lacrimarum ..." (in the vale of tears ...). It implies that the wickedness of the world makes it dark and reprieve comes only from divine salvation.




Life Redefined: "The Devil's Dictionary" Turns 100


Abierce_1866

A century after its publication as The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce’s comic lexicon remains a beautifully nasty piece of work. Though it’s a work of satire first and foremost, its mock definitions incorporate whimsy, existential pessimism, cheap puns, sex jokes, and just about every other trick in the comedian’s book. Here’s a quick sampling of my favorite entries:

SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement.

SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.

OBSOLETE, adj. No longer used by the timid. Said chiefly of words.

LIFE, n. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. We live in daily apprehension of its loss; yet when lost it is not missed. The question, "Is life worth living?" has been much discussed; particularly by those who think it is not, many of whom have written at great length in support of their view, and by careful observance of the laws of health enjoyed for long terms of years the honors of successful controversy.

HASH, x. There is no definition for this word—nobody knows what hash is.

Like hash, Bierce himself was defiantly uncategorizable. His career is one of the oddities of American literature; after the Dictionary, his second best-known work is the eerie short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” which has inspired multiple film and TV adaptations. (Probably the most famous of these aired in the '60s as an episode of The Twilight Zone.) Along with his sister in cynicism, Dorothy Parker, he is quoted constantly, but few writers claim him as an influence. Exceptions include Kurt Vonnegut, who greatly admired “Owl Creek”—“I consider anyone a Twerp who hasn’t read [it]”—and the Australian writer Peter Bowler, whose Superior Person’s Book of Words series I’ve loved since childhood.

Bierce fought, and suffered injuries, in the gruesome Battle of Shiloh, an experience that some believe formed the nihilistic core of his comedy. Look into the eyes of the photo above: that is a man who’s seen some things. His influence on Vonnegut, witness to the Dresden massacre, becomes clearer in that light, though Bierce’s work is less tempered with the milk of human kindness.

A reticent man in life, Bierce died as a total enigma: he disappeared in Mexico in 1913 while traveling—at age 71—with Pancho Villa’s army. As a result, he joins a select club of famous authors who have vanished under mysterious circumstances. Others include the poets Hart Crane (drowned at sea, possibly a suicide) and Weldon Kees (probably a suicide; his car was found abandoned by the Golden Gate Bridge after he’d told a friend he was going to Mexico). And then there are Poe and Christopher Marlowe, whose bodies were recovered but whose deaths are shrouded in suspicions of foul play. My personal theory is that all of these men are gathered on an island somewhere in the Twilight Zone, discussing literature and the virtues of terrible mustaches.


***Review: 'The Devil's Dictionary,' by Ambrose Bierce
San Francisco Chronicle
who emerged as a writer in San Francisco right after the Civil War, is remembered best today for his clever "Devil's Dictionary." As this anthology demonstrates, however, he was skilled at multiple writing genres - fact, fiction and in between, ...



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