Cassell's Dictionary of Slang [Hardcover]

Jonathon Green (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0304366366 | ISBN-13: 978-0304366361 | Publication Date: February 2006 | Edition: 2

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'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)

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1565 pages
• Publisher: Cassell; 2 edition (February 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304366366
• ISBN-13: 978-0304366361
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Slang & Idioms

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a monumental work, July 7, 2006

By 

Arieh Golan (Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (Hardcover)

The dictionary is fantastic .Tracing slang from the 16th century to the present is no mean feat.However, the omission of some slang expressions , namely between a rock and a hard place or couldn't organize a two-car funeral , is odd.I personally prefer dictioaries that are organized according to keywords rather than alphabetically , but considering everything ,the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing beats it, or even comes close..., August 21, 2011

By 

R. Stewart "Buyer" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (Hardcover)

This is really a unique resource.

I have been doing work on the period around 1900 and wanted to learn which slang was in use then and which wasn't. There were a number of late 19th century slang dictionaries you can find, and monographs on college slang, criminal slang, etc.

But most of the other reference books are no help. DARE looks deeply at some, seemingly randomly chosen, terms, but misses the vast majority.

Chambers Slang Dictionary actually tells you when the word was used, and often where specifically. You can search it on Google books, which is a great help because that's the one problem with a print copy: you can't look up by definition. You should do that because you'll see how much info is in each entry.

But buy the book, it's fun just to sit and read the entries.

I've spent a decent amount of money on reference materials recently and this is the one item I can honestly say is worth several times what I paid for it.