Bernard I Murstein

Murstein's Socially and Politically Incorrect Dictionary Bernard I Murstein

The definitions in Murstein's socially and politically incorrect dictionary bear little resemblance to the definitions of the same words appearing in standard dictionaries, but they may be more accurate. The standard dictionaries deal in literal consensus, Murstein's deals in connotations - the truths that people don't generally enunciate because they are socially and politically incorrect. A small part of this book is devoted to Yinglish, which is a term Murstein employs to describe Yiddish words that have crossed or have the potential to cross over into the English language. Some of these words are socially incorrect; many are wholly acceptable. Murstein's dictionary was inspired by Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary", first published in 1906 as "the Cynic's Word Book", which lampoons cant and political double-talk. Although as biting and cynical, this book is shorter and more loaded with puns. The author started writing his definitions around 1950 when he was 21 years old, and his last ones as a nonagenarian in 2020. It covers some 69 years and is more relevant to today's readers than Bierce's dictionary, which is too dated to be as funny as it was in 1906.