21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is what and all you need, January 3, 2008
This review is from: American Slang Dictionary, Fourth Edition (McGraw-Hill ESL References) (Paperback)
It took me forever researching books for american slang. Some books have 3 different editions each covering about a 100 or so words each and selling for over $20.
Not this. It has everything those books have and more. I ordered the hard cover at first which is just about $3 more than this one but i decided to get this because amazon's listing says it's 1098 pages. Sorry folks, i think they listed the wrong info, probably the one for the american idioms dictionary for this book.
This book is only 546 pages. It doesn't say in the listing but it is the paperback edition to "McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions 4e" also sold here at amazon. Which means they both contain the same info but different titles. Amazing how titles can be changed to sell books. Anyway, this is also the 4th edition and contains the same a little over 12,000 expressions as the hardcover. I looked in the copyrights page of this book and it states "previously published as McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions hc." I felt better knowing i saved money and got the same book as the hardcover. Plus, if you look inside both books online, you'll see they contain the same thing, amazon doesn't list 'em together probably cuz they contain different titles but they are one and the same. This was published in 2006 compared to the hardcover which was published in 2005.
If you want a hardcover, i guess you can get that but i'm just letting those who'd like to save money know that this is the paperback edition for the "McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions" and it says in the subtitle ultimate guide to colloquialisms....
So, instead of buying all those other expensive books, get this. It contains every slang word you can and can't think of - the good, the dirty, and the not soo good ones. It shows you how each word is used in a sentence and it shows how different slang words mean the same thing. For some expressions it can show how that one expression can mean different things in different contexts and explains each little nuance between the contexts. So you'll see one or more exemplary sentences for each expression. For some words, it shows the origin, it also indicates if an entry is a noun, exlamation, whether it's ony used in a sentence or whatever.
If an entry can mean more than one thing, it indicates it. Of course, it has it's short falls. An example is the slang " Eighty - six or 86." It only gives the meaning as to 'nix someone or something'. And it gives that meaning cuz it states it originated from tv where it meant to nix something. However, 86 in the restaurant setting can either mean to "refuse service" or it can mean the the restaurant is out of something in the kitchen such as the chicken is 86'd. I heard this meaning might have originated from a bar in new york so it might not be too common. It also doesn't have expressions like jaywalk or queer street among a few others. This book has slang expressions spoken in various parts of this country. I just got this book and still loking through it. i think it's muy bueno.
Why spend $20 or $30 on a single book which has less expressions when you can get this for 10 bucks and get more bang for buck?
Happy reading.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
using product to learn english, May 12, 2011
This review is from: American Slang Dictionary, Fourth Edition (McGraw-Hill ESL References) (Paperback)
This book was purchased for a young lady in Poland (Europe) and upon receiving it she was very happy and said it would be of great assistance to her in her studies. Many idiomatic phrases and words used in our slang do not appear in a regular dictionary.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the discerning mind., February 11, 2010
This review is from: American Slang Dictionary, Fourth Edition (McGraw-Hill ESL References) (Paperback)
Fatal flaw of this book is it does not provide date when the words and phrases entered lexicon. As a writer, this is important...can't write a period piece if unsure about usage; would be nice if the dictionary included dialect/region of origin or usage as well. "Dictionary of American Slang" by Harold Wentworth does provide origin/usage dates, just have to find the right edition (not sure if it's a feature of post 1980 editions).
I would recommend this dictionary (or any dictionary on slang) to someone learning English language and needs help with American idioms. A second star was awarded for some rather crude vulgarities, you can't get such candid text in Arabic idiom phrase books.
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