The Cynic's Word Book

The dictionary was never meant to be an extensive project, and the entries don’t go any further than the one for “Lord.” As Bierce writes in the preface, “As it was no part of the author's purpose to define all the words in the language, or even to make a complete alphabetical series, the stopping-place of the book was determined by considerations of bulk. ... In the event of this volume proving acceptable to that part of the reading public to which in humility it is addressed—enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to sentiment, good English to slang, and wit to humor—there may possibly be another if the author be spared for the compiling.” Apparently it was acceptable, as a second edition, this time called The Devil’s Dictionary, was published in 1911.