English language -- Dictionaries -- Humor; English language -- Semantics -- Humor; Vocabulary -- Humor
Let Howison urge with perfunctory chin
Toleration--that's all very well,
But a roast is "nuts" to his nostril thin,
And he's running--I know by the smell--
A secret, particular hell!
Bissell Gip.
HEAVEN, n. A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk
of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you
expound your own.
HEBREW, n. A male Jew, as distinguished from the Shebrew, an altogether
superior creation.
HELPMATE, n. A wife, or bitter half.
"Now, why is yer wife called a helpmate, Pat?"
Says the priest. "Since the time o' yer wooin'
She 's niver assisted in what ye were at--
For it 's naught ye are ever doin'."
"That 's true of yer Riverence," Patrick replies,
And no sign of contrition evinces;
"But, bedad, it 's a fact which the word implies,
For she helps to mate the expinses!"
Marley Wottel.
HEMP, n. A plant from whose fibrous bark is made an article of neckwear
which is frequently put on after public speaking in the open air and
prevents the wearer from taking cold.
HERMIT, n. A person whose vices and follies are not sociable.
HERS, pron. His.
HIBERNATE, v. To pass the winter season in domestic seclusion. There
have been many singular popular notions about the hibernation of various
animals. Many believe that the bear hibernates during the whole winter
and subsists by mechanically sucking its paws. It is admitted that it
comes out of its retirement in the spring so lean that it has to try
twice before it can cast a shadow. Three or four centuries ago, in
England, no fact was better attested than that swallows passed the
winter months in the mud at the bottoms of the brooks, clinging together
in globular masses. They have apparently been compelled to give up
the custom on account of the foulness of the brooks. Sotus Escobius
discovered in Central Asia a whole nation of people who hibernated.
By some investigators, the fasting of Lent is supposed to have been
originally a modified form of hibernation, to which the Church gave a
religious significance; but this view is strenuously opposed by that
eminent authority, Bishop Kip, who does not wish any honors denied to
the memory of the Founder of his family.
HIPPOGRIFF, n. An animal (now extinct) which was half horse and half
griffin. The griffin was itself a compound creature, half lion and half
eagle. The hippogriff was therefore one quarter eagle, which is two
dollars and fifty cents in gold. The study of natural history is full of
surprises.
HISTORIAN, n. A broad-gauge gossip.
HISTORY, n. An account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant,
which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly
fools.
Of Roman history, great Niebuhr's shown
'T is nine-tenths lying. Faith, I wish 't were
known,
Ere we accept great Niebuhr as a guide,
Wherein he blundered and how much he lied.
Solder Bupp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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