Splendid American wag Ambrose Bierce published, to great acclaim, a Devil’s Dictionary a hundred years or so ago, thus inaugurating a fine tradition of subversive glossaries: Douglas Adams and John Lloyd’s The Deeper Meaning of Liff being one, and Dr. William Margrabe’s online Devil’s Derivatives Dictionary — dating back to 2001 — being another. Mr. Margrabe’s excellent resource has long since been put to pasture and has fallen fallow — though you can find it if you look hard enough — and since the world of financial services has moved on in 20 years to the sunlit uplands we now inhabit, here is the JC’s meagre contribution to the venerable tradition.
