From Library Journal
Rife with ribaldry, with an amusing contrast between tart words and cool, analytical definitions, this book may mobilize the censors. A typical entry has variant spelling or wording, geographical range, meanings, and comments--often guesswork--on tone, nuance, associations, social context, history, derivation, and related words. Pronunciation is sometimes left unclear. A few slang styles, such as backslang and pig Latin, are noted. Published as the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang in Britain , this work covers Britain, the United States, and Australia well, other English-speaking areas lightly. The author, a lexicographer, draws from the media and personal observation of such users of slang as hippies and Valley Girls. Recommended more as a fun reflection of speech in recent decades than as definitive scholarship.
- William A. Donovan, Chicago P.L.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"As up-to-date a dictionary of 'strikingly informal' contemporary language as you are likely to find." www.mantex.co.uk/reviews "Thorne is a kind of slang detective, going down the streets where other lexicographers fear to tread." Daily Telegraph