Ambrose Bierce 
Devil’s Dictionary [PDF ebook] 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Meantime, too, some of the enterprising humorists of the country had helped them selves to such parts of the work as served their needs, and many of its definitions, anecdotes, phrases and so forth, had become more or less current in popular speech. This explanation is made, not with any pride of priority in trifles, but in simple denial of possible charges of plagiarism, which is no trifle. In merely resuming his own the author hopes to be held guiltless by those to whom the work is addressed – enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to sentiment, wit to humor and clean English to slang.