Cassell's Dictionary of Slang 2nd edition

Cassell's Dictionary of Slang 2nd edition

by JonathonGreen (Author)

Synopsis

With its unparalleled coverage of English slang of all types (from 18th-century cant to contemporary gay slang), and its uncluttered editorial apparatus, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang was warmly received when its first edition appeared in 1998. 'Brilliant.' said Mark Lawson on BBC2's The Late Review; 'This is a terrific piece of work - learned, entertaining, funny, stimulating' said Jonathan Meades in The Evening Standard. But now the world's best single-volume dictionary of English slang is about to get even better. Jonathon Green has spent the last seven years on a vast project: to research in depth the English slang vocabulary and to hunt down and record written instances of the use of as many slang words as possible. This has entailed trawling through more than 4000 books - plus song lyrics, TV and movie scripts, and many newspapers and magazines - for relevant material. The research has thrown up some fascinating results - not least the revelation that much of the slang lexicon is far older than scholars have been hitherto aware.The full fruits of this research will appear in due course in a vast multi-volume publication; but its first fruits can be seen in Cassell's Dictionary of Slang: 2nd edition (CDS2). Jonathon's research has not only uncovered many thousands of new slang words and expressions (12,000 of which will appear in CDS2), but has also enabled him to make a myriad improvements to the existing dictionary text. Thus, while the core of entries have been kept in place, new research has ensured that many aspects, whether dating, definitions or etymologies, have been notably improved.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 1508
Edition: 2
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 17 Nov 2005

ISBN 10: 0304366366
ISBN 13: 9780304366361
Book Overview: A fully revised and updated edition of Jonathon Green's magisterial survey of four hundred years of English slang. Includes 12,500 new headwords, drawn from all parts of the English-speaking world. Many etymologies have either been improved, embellished or, where necessary, entirely rewritten on the basis of the author's research; similarly, numerous usages have been antedated on the basis of citation research. Cassell's Dictionary of Slang is now acknowledged as having superseded Eric Partridge's Dictionary as the authoritative dictionary of English slang.

Media Reviews
'mightily impressive' IRISH TIMES 'New, lewder, fatter, gorsser. Green's appetite for lex from the wrong side of the tracks is massive.' -- Jonathon Meades EVENING STANDARD 'Magnificent... I felt quite pale after a while at the endless catalogue of things we do to each other.' -- Miles Kington THE INDEPENDENT 'Dr Johnson would have moaned with delight.' -- Andrew Marr DAILY TELEGRAPH 'this magnificent book will guarantee you hours and hours of enjoyment, expoloring the vulgar inventiveness of living language. Every home should have a copy.' THE HERALD (GLASGOW)
Author Bio
Jonathon Green is Britain's leading lexicographer of slang. Among his many language-related publications are the Macmillan Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, The Slang Thesaurus, Slang Down the Ages, The Dictionary of Jargon, and Chasing the Sun: Dictionary-Makers and the World They Made. The first edition of the bestselling Cassell's Dictionary of Slang appeared in 1998.