The Funny Dictionary is a comic dictionary comprising funny definitions based on genuine and innocent mistakes perpetrated by school children.
A mixture of hilarity and scholarship, the book is similar to WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman’s 1066 And All That and Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary. But unlike those comic classics, The Funny Dictionary contains only genuine student bloopers. The definitions are not inventions by the author, but rather the product of the imagination, innocence, and accidental insights of school children across the decades.
Funny, challenging and informative, this book provides a fun incentive for your child or student to improve their vocabulary and to expand their general knowledge. Used in this way, the book can be a fun teaching tool as well as a laugh-out-loud respite.
Although no overt attempt is made at explaining the student bloopers in this book, you may find hints in the photographs accompanying some of the comic definitions (and from the titles of the photographs listed in the back of the book). Images are all sourced from the National Library’s Pictorial Collections.
The Funny Dictionary has a Facebook® Fan Page (facebook.com/TheFunnyDictionary), has more than 200,000 Facebook Fans.
The Funny Dictionary follows Troy Simpson’s earlier work, the popular Funny English Errors and Insights: Illustrated (National Library of Australia, 2010).
Examples of entries include:
ANTHOLOGY n. the study of ants.
EMU n. the name of the noise made by a cat.
INTERPRETER n. a thing you take temperatures with.
MARSUPIAL n. a poached animal.
REPARTEE vb. to celebrate again and again.
SINGLET n. a young swan.
