Customer Reviews

Slang

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The French have a special committee to ensure that the purity of the language doesn't get corrupted by among others those vulgar Americans. As such, they are effectively marginalizing their language to the past and preventing people from being able to discuss current trends.

The English language, especially the American variant lacks any such sense of formality and is creating new words just as fast as anyone can think them up. Many of them, especially in the computer field aren't words at all but TLA's (Three Letter Acronym) that substitute brevity to save typing.

Every aspect of American society has been busy creating new words, almost it would seem just for the fun of it. And this book is organized (if you can call it organized at all) by the general areas where the new words began, such as: Automotive, Bureaucrat, Computer, Drugs, Media, Medical (Sub-title: words you don't want to hear from your hospital bed --C&T Ward: Place where comatose patients are placed in a hospital - it stands for 'cabbages and turnips.'), politics, schools, and on and on.

It's easily enough to keep you ROTFLOL - Rolling on the Floor Laughing Out loud, or even ROTFLMAO - Rolling on the Floor Laughing My A__ Off.

Regional U.S. slang and uniquely 'American' terms are covered here in Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms: a revised, updated version of a classic slang dictionary arranged by topic. The unique arrangement by subject rather than word allows for easier cross-comparison of slang: having an updated version with new chapters and 10,000 words further enhances its usefulness as a definitive slang reference.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I had always thought that slang was what your mother told you not to use at the dinner table. That turns out to be an old-fashioned idea. Slang, according to this enlightening, entertaining, and--dare I say it?--educational book, is the way the American language replenishes itself. (Some words once labeled slang: bogus, clumsy, snide, and spurious.) The latest round of replenishment comes from the Internet, which, author Paul Dickson says, "could be the greatest of all dispensers of slang and new English since the invention of movable type." One of the innovations of this book is the division of slang into categories: You look up definitions by turning to "Net-speak," say, to find out what, say, "kevork" means: "To ban electronically from a site or bulletin board. From the name Jack Kevorkian, a doctor who assisted suicides." Net-speak is one of thirty categories. Others include Java-speak (black eye: "Expresso mixed with brewed coffee") and that grand old American dialect, Bureaucratese (fuzz: "To blur on purpose; to make less direct"). As you can see, it's a book not for just looking things up but for browsing, for searching out new words, and for replenishing your own noggin.

My shelf of Paul Dickson's books on language originated more than twenty-five years ago, and it's been growing steadily ever since. Dickson obviously takes professional delight in being one of the English-language's foremost compilers. His invitations to readers to contact him with their own suggested words and terms for future editions (on page 419 of his latest book), get plentiful response. I know because I've sent him a few of my own suggestions on those rare occasions that he hasn't already beaten me to the punch. And owning more than one edition of some of his evergreen language references, I can see how substantially they grow and evolve during the intervals between printings.

Dickson's latest and greatest third edition of Slang is a strong case in point. First, Dickson's topical organization of Slang puts it heads and shoulders above other slang books in terms of utility. (That brilliant approach dates back to the original edition first published in 1990.) Thus, as a writer and editor by trade, I keep it nearby as an "elbow reference" whenever I'm writing to, for, or about a specialized group--whether it be professional (information tech, doctors, businessmen) political (politicians, pundits, and decisionmakers), or cultural (youth audiences, artists and performers, advertisers and marketers). Many a time, Dickson has given me just the right expression or term to stretch the presentation of my knowledge or insight just the little bit that helped me save face. And thus he's also aided and abetted my appearing to be up to date and cool, even hip, when it comes to my available vernacular vocabulary.

Thus I reveal myself to be standing defiantly on the cusp of geezerdom, but with the help of Paul Dickson's Slang, I will continue to hold my own with the lingo of specialists and across generational divides --whether I'm talking to a computer salesman or deciphering e-mails from my sons. Cudos, too, to Dickson's publisher Walker Books for bringing out this much-expanded edition in such an elegant and highly useful format.

My Paul Dickson reference shelf will be squeezed a bit tighter as I move over his new edition of Labels for Locals (which appeared earlier this fall from Collins) to make space for Slang 3e. The former book is an equally valuable reference to what to call people from wherever in the world they're from and to whatever identity group they may belong, especially in our p.c. era of sensitivity to names and labels.

I bought this book after hearing about it on NPR, and was really looking forward to reading through it. But after reading it cover to cover, I was appalled at the number of inaccurate definitions of commonly used slang terms. Did no one fact check this book? Some of the definitions aren't even from the US, they are from other countries - and the meanings are very different. The way the book was organized wasn't very logical either, it appeared to jump all over the place, making finding a particular term difficult. I can't recommend this book for someone wanting to learn about American slang.

This topical dictionary of slang is fun to just browse through, but it can also be used by writers who are honing their craft or by everyday speakers wondering what something means. I like how it is divided into certain sections, like food, sports, and drugs. Makes it easy to spend some time in one topic and pick up a lot of new words.

Some favorites:

acapulco spread: Transaction with multiple commissions that is so complicated and exhausting that it will "send the broker winging off to a Mexican vacation" (Wall Street Journal).

BASSCAR: Blend of BASS + NASCAR to coin a term used to show the many parallels between competitive bass fishing and stock-car racing.

butta: To be smooth; nice, like butter, as in "That's a butta jacket."

career-limiting move/CLM: Action that would most likely get you fired or seriously demoted. Trashing your boss while he or she is within earshot is a serious CLM.

working for Exxon: said of a truck that gets particularly bad mileage

This dictionary is both fun and useful, can't ask for much more than that from a reference book. Highly Recommended. Enjoy.

English in my third language and I found this book great and very helpful.
The book also has a good style and format.
Fun to read. I'm enjoing my copy.

Yes, this book is great. It opens one's eyes to all the ethnicities in the world and how the different "tribes", albeit it Mexican, Black, White, Teenagers, Asian, Mixed with two or three ethnicities, etc., communicate. So, read it and learn to love people for their character, not the slang they speak.

The new and completely updated edition of Paul Dickson's Slang dictionary is a detailed research work that is totally accessible for general audiences. Especially useful are the new sections on the slang of such subjects as computers, teens, and the internet. The book also contains many useful and amusing sidebars, such as a listing of the cryptic emoticons that many people put into email messages (such as :-! for "foot in mouth") and the code that people use in personal ads. Along with authors such as John Ciardi and Hugh Rawson, Paul Dickson has produced the rare example of a book for your reference shelf that is a lot of fun to read from cover-to-cover.

I really love this new edition of an old favorite. It's so fresh and wide-ranging, and covers all kinds of American slang--from historical to 21st century--with Paul Dickson's signature flourish and zing. This is the kind of book you'll turn to not only for reference and insight, but to page through for sheer enjoyment (and to spike your vocabulary with sharp new turns of phrase!).

The new design and cover are so attractive too--I think the updates really shine in this modern edition. A huge change from the previous version, it feels up-to-the-minute. Nicely done.

Highly recommended for word lovers and avid readers of all ages.