Women as slang creators and users is perhaps the last, and very important, piece of the slang jigsaw. Women in slang is a pretty sorry story, but women and slang is an undiscovered territory, which this book explores, from fishwives and flappers to Mumsnet.
The revealing stories behind slang, the language that shows us at our most human
Slang, however one judges it, shows us at our most human. It is used widely and often, typically associated with the writers of noir fiction, teenagers, and rappers, but also found in the works of Shakespeare and Dickens. It has been recorded since at least 1500 AD, and today's vocabulary, taken from every major English-speaking country, runs to over 125,000 slang words and phrases. This Very Short Introduction takes readers on a wide-ranging tour of this fascinating sub-set of the English language. It considers the meaning and origins of the word 'slang' itself, the ideas that a make a word 'slang', the long-running themes that run through slang, and the history of slang's many dictionaries. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
In this work, Jonathon Green traces the development of slang and its trajectory through society, and offers an impassioned argument for its defence. Beginning, at least in recorded terms, in the gutter and the thieves' tavern, and displayed only in a few criminological pamphlets, slang has made its way up and out: across social classes and into every medium.
The fascinating origins of the most colourful words and phrases in the English language
A prequel to the first Anita Blake novel, "Guilty Pleasures," that shows how Anita became an "animator"--Someone who raises the dead for a living. Includes a "Guilty Pleasures" handbook, containing character profiles and a glossary.
"...broadly entertaining resource 'covers the waterfront' with 'lingo' and 'bits and bobs' from English-speaking countries, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, parts of the Caribbean, and the United States....features 70,000 words and phrases dating from the early 16th century to the present. Typical entries include parts of speech, etymology...time periods, geography, brief definitions...usage examples... occasional cross references. Entries such as 'nudnik'...'New York minute'...'La la Land'...and 'beam me up, Scotty'...will delight...readers. Libraries...will...want to purchase this resource because of its broader coverage and affordable price."-- Library Journal .
The latest in Cassell's best-selling series of recreational slang titles derived from Jonathon Green's unique database of English slang: a richly humorous collection of 5000 English slang phrases.
"Pointed, dry, witty and endlessly inventive, rhyming slang is held in greater popular affection than any other type of colloquial English language. This tome, from Britain s foremost lexicographer of slang, will tell you everything you need to know about this enduringly fascinating vernacular."
Companion to the bestselling Big Book of Filth ! An unabashed scat-fest supplies colorful and inventive metaphors, idioms, and euphemisms, along with their etymology, for every imaginable corporal emission, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous. Drawing on prison jargon, street lingo, college colloquialisms, and classical literature, a leading slang lexicographer turns his attention to defecation, ejaculation, belches, boogers, and breaking wind. More than 4,500 salacious synonyms for anal, urinary, genital, and oral functions--and malfunctions--display the verbal ingenuity of slangsters through the ages.
