Aslang dictionary is areference book containing analphabetical list ofslang, which isvernacularvocabulary not generally acceptable in formal usage,usually including information given for each word, including meaning, pronunciation, andetymology. It can provide definitions on a range of slang from more mundane terms (like "rain check" or "bob and weave") to obscure sexual practices. Such works also can include words and phrases arising from differentdialects andargots, which may or may not have passed into more common usage. They can also track the changing meaning of the terms over time and space, as they migrate and mutate.
Slang dictionaries have been around for hundreds of years.
The Canting Academy, or Devil's Cabinet Opened was a 17th-century slang dictionary, written in 1673 byRichard Head, that looked to definethieves' cant.[1]
A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, was first publishedc. 1698.
A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, byFrancis Grose was first published in 1785.[2][3][4] Grose's work was arguably the most significant English-language slang dictionary untilJohn Camden Hotten's 1859A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words.[5]
In recent years, dictionaries with a more academic focus have tried to bring together etymological studies in an attempt to provide definitive guides to slang while avoiding problems arising fromfolk etymology andfalse etymology. The study of slang is now taken seriously by academics, especiallylexicographers like the lateEric Partridge, devoting their energies to the field and publishing on it, including producing slang dictionaries.
There have also been a subsequent amount oftongue-in-cheek efforts which tend to focus on the more vulgar slang terms:
Authority control databases: National |
|---|