# S explained — The Devil’s Dictionary

> Chapter companion for The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

This chapter of 'The Devil's Dictionary' presents satirical definitions for words beginning with 'S', including Sabbath, Sacerdotalist, Sacrament, Sacred, Safety-Clutch, Saint, Salacity, Salamander, Serial, Severalty, Sheriff, Siren, Slang, Smithareen, Sophistry, Sorcery, Soul, Spooker, and Story. Through humor and irony, Bierce critiques religion, politics, social conventions, and human folly, often using verse and fictional quotations to underscore his points.

## Themes in this chapter

### Hypocrisy and Duplicity

Evident in definitions like 'Sacred' (mocking religious sanctity), 'Saint' (a dead sinner revised), and 'Sophistry' (controversial method of an opponent).

### Critique of Religion

Prominent in definitions of 'Sabbath' (enforcing neighbor's observance), 'Sacrament' (Protestant economy), 'Sacred' (listing absurd examples), and 'Soul' (parodying theological disputes).

## Character check-ins

### James F. Bowman

Mentioned in the definition of 'Serial' as a collaborator on a serial tale whose partner sank all characters in the Atlantic.

### John Elmer Pettibone Cajee

Subject of a poem in the definition of 'Sheriff', describing his bad deeds and his neighbors making him sheriff to stop his lynchings.

### Col. Bryan

Referenced in the poem under 'Safety-Clutch' as the 'busted man' who fell from an elevator, representing a political figure.

### Plato

Mentioned in the definition of 'Soul' regarding his theory of souls entering philosophers' bodies.

### Dionysius I

Referenced in the definition of 'Soul' as a usurper and despot who threatened Plato.

## Key lines

> Sabbath: A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.

The Sabbath is a weekly holiday that started because God created the world in six days and was stopped on the seventh.

_Bierce humorously reinterprets the biblical creation story, implying God was 'arrested' rather than resting._

> Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.

A saint is a deceased sinner who has been cleaned up and rewritten.

_This cynical definition suggests sainthood is a whitewashed version of a flawed life._

> Serial: A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine.

A serial is a fictional story that slowly appears across multiple newspaper or magazine issues.

_Bierce emphasizes the slow, creeping nature of serial publication and its fictional quality._

> Sheriff: In America the chief executive officer of a county, whose most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching and hanging of rogues.

In America, a sheriff is the top county official, whose main job in some Western and Southern states is to catch and hang criminals.

_Bierce satirizes frontier justice and the violent role of sheriffs in lynching._

> Slang: The grunt of the human hog (Pignoramus intolerabilis) with an audible memory.

Slang is the grunt of an intolerable human pig that can be remembered when heard.

_Bierce disparages slang as animalistic and mindless, mocking those who use it as witless imitators._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_devil_s_dictionary_se/chapters/s
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_devil_s_dictionary_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_devil_s_dictionary_se/chapters