The first edition of Paul Dickson's Slang was selected by William Safire of The New York Times as one of the best language books of the year. Completely updated -- with more than twice as many entries as before -- this latest volume truly encompasses the whole colorful range of current American slang. Divided into twenty-nine broad categories, these are the words that make American English as expressive as it is fascinating. From advertising offices to prisons, from high schools to the halls of Congress, this invaluable resource reveals the way Americans speak and think today.
Whether burgeoning from the web of new words on the Internet, the fluid language of the drug culture, or the brutal and ironic parlance of the Vietnam and Gulf wars, these verbal inventions have carved their places in the vernacular. The vitality of American slang is reflected in such recent coinages as digerati (digital equivalent of literati), spam (to deploy mass postings on the Internet), and phat (good, cool). And the flexibility of the language has given rise to a mountain biker's claims to feeling hammered (exhausted, beaten to a pulp), the Pentagon brass' declaration cubed out (filled to capacity), and the meteorologist's scud (a low, fast-moving cloud).
Drawing from fields as diverse as aviation, the media, and real estate, Dickson has unearthed thousands of pithy expressions for the common denominators of American life, including: wrong side of the curtain (tourist or economy class on an airline), roboanchor (a TV anchor who reads but does not understand the news) and house on steroids (a small home that's bigger after major remodeling work). The breadth and power of the slang collected here brings to life whole new worlds -- and rich new ways to communicate.
With each section prefaced by illuminating discussions of that particular culture's language, Slang goes well beyond the role of a traditional dictionary; it lays claim to a treasured place in any language lover's library.
