Coined in the spontaneity of the everyday spoken act, slang exists as a testament to human nature's inventive and subversive instinct. This history of English slang documents our verbal predilections for the racier side of life, at the expense of the more quotidian, let alone respectable - it is no coincidence that the longest chapters in thiis book concern parts of the body, sex and drink and drunkenness. Slang Down the Ages tackles its subject theme by theme, taking standard English words and phrases and tracing the ingenuity of their slang equivalents over time, in each case approximating 'earliest use'. Be amused by the playfulness of our linguistic heritage, intrigued by our need for encrypted signs and appalled by some of the more bold-faced puns, as Jonathon Green charts four centuries of our developing and ever-diversifying vocabulary.
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'A thumping tribute to the magpie instincts of its author and to the English linguistic fecundity.' Jonathan Keates, Observer - 'Slang Down the Ages has a fresh slant, digging out many quaint, witty and disgusting locutions from the past and giving them dates.' Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Times
About the Author
Jonathon Green is a highly respected lexicographer and Britain's foremost authority on slang; he recently added The Cassell Dictionary of Slang to an impressive list of related titles: amazon.co.uk said of this title that he had achieved for the second half of the 20th century what the legendary Eric Partridge did for the first half. The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, The Slang Thesaurus, The Dictionary of Jargon and Neologisms all confirm his unrivalled scholarship and authority in this field. He is also the author of Famous Last Words, published by Kyle Cathie.
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