Dictionary of American Slang

by Harold Wentworth, Stuart Berg Flexner

Dollars to doughnuts , your reference shelf lacks a good slang dictionary, and that's a fine how-de-do . Whether you're a stuffy writer looking to gussy up your prose, a poindexter who thinks studying dictionaries is the cat's pajamas , or a muttonheaded fogey hoping to get a clue , Robert Chapman's Dictionary of American Slang fills the bill. Containing more than 19,000 terms of American slang, this lexicon represents all periods of American history, from phrases out of the 1880s, such as carrot-top for "redhead," to current '90s jargon such as carjacking . It covers the widely acceptable and the taboo, slang from cowboys and railroad workers and slang from rock & rollers, corporate America, and the gay community. It includes obsolete phrases such as canoeing for "making-out," and up-to-date terms relating to technology, such as listserv for "electronic mail list." Each item features pronunciation guides, word origins, and usage examples, and words that are derogatory or impolite are clearly labeled as such. A righteous reference and a lulu of a browser, the Dictionary of American Slang is an elegantly produced and scholarly rigorous linguistic knockout . --Stephanie Gold

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Language, Dictionaries

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, yeah, well, I do read dictionaries, including this one. I acknowledge freely that I did not read the appendices, but I did read the dictionary. The plot sometimes drags, and character development is thin, but how else are you going to run across expressions like fair dinkum, creep dive, badly plonked, smoudge, or ramstuginous? I ask you.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who really reads a dictionary as a book? I tried because this is so interesting. This is one of those if I find it cheap, I'm going to buy it as it has the best list of all slang. Each entry tells you what year it came into usage, how it was used, and various synonyms that they either became or are associated with. I read the 3rd edition, so it is still evolving.

[Cecilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never managed my goal of reading it cover to cover, but I did flip through most of it--this is a gem of our library collection. It brings joy to my heart. Some of the slang was incorrect even by "old-timey" standards, but everyone who needs a daily read of the development of language over time should read a few pages of this.

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