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The Devil's Dictionary-Part35_Ambrose Bierce(1842-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet is the initial of his name

-- _Xristos_. If it represented a cross it would stand for St.



Andrew, who "testified" upon one of that shape. In the algebra of

psychology x stands for Woman's mind. Words beginning with X are



Grecian and will not be defined in this standard English dictionary.

Y



YANKEE, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our

Union, a New Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown.



(See DAMNYANK.)

YEAR, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.



YESTERDAY, n. The infancy of youth, the youth of manhood, the entire

past of age.



But yesterday I should have thought me blest

To stand high-pinnacled upon the peak



Of middle life and look adown the bleak

And unfamiliar foreslope to the West,



Where solemn shadows all the land invest

And stilly voices, half-remembered, speak



Unfinished prophecy, and witch-fires freak

The hauntedtwilight of the Dark of Rest.



Yea, yesterday my soul was all aflame

To stay the shadow on the dial's face



At manhood's noonmark! Now, in God His name

I chide aloud the little interspace



Disparting me from Certitude, and fain

Would know the dream and vision ne'er again.



Baruch Arnegriff

It is said that in his last illness the poet Arnegriff was



attended at different times by seven doctors.

YOKE, n. An implement, madam, to whose Latin name, _jugum_, we owe



one of the most illuminating words in our language -- a word that

defines the matrimonial situation with precision, point and poignancy.



A thousand apologies for withholding it.

YOUTH, n. The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum,



Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor of

endowing a living Homer.



Youth is the true Saturnian Reign, the Golden Age on earth

again, when figs are grown on thistles, and pigs betailed with



whistles and, wearing silken bristles, live ever in clover, and

clows fly over, delivering milk at every door, and Justice never



is heard to snore, and every assassin is made a ghost and,

howling, is cast into Baltimost!



Polydore Smith

Z



ZANY, n. A popular character in old Italian plays, who imitated with

ludicrous incompetence the _buffone_, or clown, and was therefore the



ape of an ape; for the clown himself imitated the serious characters

of the play. The zany was progenitor to the specialist in humor, as



we to-day have the unhappiness to know him. In the zany we see an

example of creation; in the humorist, of transmission. Another



excellent specimen of the modern zany is the curate, who apes the

rector, who apes the bishop, who apes the archbishop, who apes the



devil.

ZANZIBARI, n. An inhabitant of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, off the



eastern coast of Africa. The Zanzibaris, a warlike people, are best

known in this country through a threatening diplomaticincident that



occurred a few years ago. The American consul at the capital occupied

a dwelling that faced the sea, with a sandy beach between. Greatly to



the scandal of this official's family, and against repeated

remonstrances of the official himself, the people of the city



persisted in using the beach for bathing. One day a woman came down

to the edge of the water and was stooping to remove her attire (a pair



of sandals) when the consul, incensed beyond restraint, fired a charge

of bird-shot into the most conspicuous part of her person.



Unfortunately for the existing _entente cordiale_ between two great

nations, she was the Sultana.






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