Posted by Robert Hill on February 23, 2004 at -1:55:03 from 195.92.168.166 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: 'deusy'? posted by Robert Dilley on February 22, 2004 at 19:42:38:
Oh well, if we're doing dictionary jokes, there's Chambers' famous definition of eclair: "a cake, long in shape, but short in duration".
For the edition of Chambers which I own, they changed the definition to one which isn't funny, but which still begins "a cake, long in shape,", and which happens to be interrupted by a page turn at that point, so you can look at it and think the punchline is coming.
In more recent editions they've reverted to the funny definition.
Then there are several famous definitions from Dr Johnson, such as that of "oats", which I'm sure you all know, and a whole book full from Ambrose Bierce.
I'm currently reading "The Meaning of Everything", Simon Winchester's account of the making of the OED, which quotes, for one sense of the word abbreviator, the unintentionally funny definition "An officer of the court of Rome, appointed ... to draw up the Pope's briefs".