to know what it is. FEUDALISM. No need to have one single precise notion about it: thunder against. OMEGA. Second letter of the Greek alphabet. THIRTEEN. Avoid being thirteen at table; it brings bad luck. The sceptics should not fail to crack jokes: "What is the difference? I'll eat enough for two!" Or again, if there are ladies, ask if any is pregnant. WALTZ. Wax indignant about. A lascivious, impure dance that should only be danced by old ladies. Parallels The dictionary is comparable in many respects to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, but takes the opposite tack by affirming all the commonplace notions. Influence The British impresario and humorist Willie Donaldson was long interested in the Dictionary; and, as "Henry Root", published something similar for the Britain of the 1980s: Henry Root's World of Knowledge. See also Commonplace book Idée reçue Notes References External links Flaubert, Gustave. 1954 (revised 1968). Flaubert's Dictionary of Accepted Ideas. Translated by Jacques Barzun. New York: New Directions. . Barger presents some of the entries, reordered thematically. 1911 non-fiction books Satirical books Received Ideas