HANDKERCHIEF, n. A small square of silk or linen, used in various
ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals
to conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recent
invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its duties
to the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of
"Othello" is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt,
as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails
in our own day -- an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals
to conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recent
invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its duties
to the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of
"Othello" is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt,
as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails
in our own day -- an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Related:
- CAVILER, n. A critic of our own work.
-- Ambrose Bierce,
"The Devil's... - PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another by
the resemblances and differences between his face and our own,
which is the standard of excellence. "There is... - SCARABAEUS, n. The sacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians,
allied to our familiar "tumble-bug." It was supposed... - COMMENDATION, n. The tribute that we pay to achievements that
resembles,
but do not equal, our own. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The... - AFRICAN, n. A nigger that votes our way.
-- Ambrose Bierce,
"The Devil's... - EVANGELIST, n. A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious
sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of
our neighbors.
Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's... - FREEBOOTER, n. A conqueror in a small way of business,
whose annexations lack of the sanctifying merit of... - JOSS-STICKS, n. Small sticks burned by the Chinese in their pagan
tomfoolery,
in imitation of certain sacred rites of our holy religion... - TAIL, n. The part of an animal's spine that has transcended its
natural limitations to set up an independent existence in a world of
its own.
Excepting in its foetal state, Man is without a tail...
