For Example: Aborigines, n. Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.

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Today is January 9, 2009, and the following are two nouns, the first from the “B” words and the second from the “C” words:

Belladonna, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison.  A striking example of the essential identity of the two languages. 

and

Curiosity. n. An objectionable quality of the female mind.  The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.

(Read a few biographical words about Ambrose Bierce, from the 1958 Dover paperback edition of The Devil’s Dictionary, here.)

Authors Bio:
I have a law degree (Stanford, 66') but have never practiced. Instead, from 1967 through 1977, I tried to contribute to the revolution in America. As unsuccessful as everyone else over that decade, in 1978 I went to work for the U.S. Forest Service in San Francisco as a Clerk-Typist, GS-4. I was active in the USFS's union for several years, including a brief stint as editor of The Forest Service Monitor, the nationwide voice of the Forest Service in the National Federation of Federal Employees. Howsoever, I now believe my most important contribution while editor of the F.S.M. was bringing to the attention of F.S. employees the fact that the Black-Footed Ferret was not extinct; one had been found in 1980 on a national forest in the Colorado. In 2001 I retired from the USFS after attaining the age of 60 with 23 years of service. Stanford University was evidently unimpressed with my efforts to make USFS investigative reports of tort claim incidents available to tort claimants (ie, "the public"), alleging the negligence of a F.S. employee acting in the scope of his/her duties caused their damages, under the Freedom of Information Act. Oh well. What'cha gonna do?