Slanguage: A Cool, Fresh, Phat, and Shagadelic Guide to All Kinds of Slang

by Mike Ellis

If you ask for a "pop" in Manhattan you are most likely going to be offered a strange pill of punched in the face. The same request in the Midwest, however, will get you a sweet, bubbly, soft drink. Pop or soda. Jimmies or sprinkles. A bag or a sack. People from all over the world e-mail Ellis with examples of local slang and phrases, linguistic idiosyncrasies that he has come to think of as a kind of home cooking. His web site gets over 100,000 hits each week.

The slang we use often reflects who we are and where we've come from, and Ellis has a gift for zooming in on the often humorous, ironic, and colorful way that religions, nationalities, classes, subcultures, professions, and pundits put their spin on the native tongue. Slanguage contains all kinds of slang -- from occupational and recreational slang to time tunnel and television slang -- and the text is blended with smart, humorous art work that frames and amplifies selected words and phrases.

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2000