Related:

• MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion.
  The chief temple is in the holy city of New York....
• PIGMY, n. One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelers in many parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only.
  The Pigmies are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians -- who are Hogmies....
• SCARABAEUS, n. The sacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians, allied to our familiar "tumble-bug.
  It was supposed to symbolize immortality, the fact that God knew why giving it its peculiar sanctity....
• 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....
• REVERENCE, n. The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• ART, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related as follows by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape, S.
  J. One day a wag -- what would the wretch be at?...
• ALTAR, n. The place whereupon the priest formerly raveled out the small intestine of the sacrificial victim for purposes of divination and cooked its flesh for the gods.
  The word is now seldom used, except with reference to the sacrifice of their liberty and peace by a male and a female tool....
• LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear and his faith in your patience.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• SERIAL, n. A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine.
  Frequently appended to each installment is a "synposis of preceding chapters" for those who have not read them, but a direr need is a synposis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read _them_....