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The Cynic's Word Book

 

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HABEAS CORPUS. A writ by which a man may be taken out of jail when HABEAS CORPUS. A writ by which a man may be taken out of jail when confined for the wrong crime.
HABIT n. A shackle for the free.
HADES n. The lower world; the residence of departed spirits; the place where the dead live.
Among the ancients the idea of Hades was not
synonymous with our
Hell, many of the most respectable men of
antiquity residing there in
a very comfortable kind of way. Indeed, the
Elysian Fields themselves
were a part of Hades, though they have since been
removed to Paris.
When the Jacobean version of the New Testament was
in process of
evolution the pious and learned men engaged in the
work insisted by a
majority vote on translating the Greek word
"Aides" as "Hell"; but a
conscientious minority member secretly possessed
himself of the record
and struck out the objectional word wherever he
could find it. At the
next meeting, the Bishop of Salisbury, looking
over the work, suddenly
sprang to his feet and said with considerable
excitement: "Gentlemen,
somebody has been razing 'Hell' here!" Years
afterward the good
prelate's death was made sweet by the reflection
that he had been the
means (under Providence) of making an important,
serviceable and
immortal addition to the phraseology of the
English tongue.

 
Old English 'word lottery' pick

Beggary : n. The act of begging; the state of being a beggar; mendicancy; extreme poverty.; n. Beggarly appearance.; a. Beggarly.

 
The Cynic's Word Book by Ambrose Bierce published in 1906 and 1911.
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