Dictionary of Contemporary Slang.pdf

DICTIONARY OF

CONTEMPORARY

SLANG

THIRD EDITION

TONY THORNE

A & C Black

London

www.acblack.com

First published in Great Britain 1990

Paperback published 1991

Second edition published 1997

Paperback published 1999

Third edition published 2005

This paperback edition published 2007

A & C Black Publishers Ltd

38 Soho Square, London W1D 3HB

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the

permission of the publishers .

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN-10 0 7136 7529 2

ISBN-13 978 0 7136 7592 0

eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0220-6

Text production and proofreading

Heather Bateman, Emma Harris, Katy McAdam, Rebecca McKee

This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed,

sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and

manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country

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Text typeset by A & C Black Publishers

Printed in Spain by GraphyCems

INTRODUCTION: SLANG IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Slang and Society

Slang derives much of its power from the fact that it is clandestine,

forbidden or generally disapproved of. So what happens once it is

accepted, even in some cases embraced and promoted by

‘mainstream’ society? Not long ago the Oxford English Dictionary

characterised slang as ‘low and disreputable’; in the late 1970s the

pioneering sociolinguist Michael Halliday used the phrase

‘anti-language’ in his study of the speech of criminals and

marginals. For him, theirs was an interestingly ‘pathological’ form

of language. The first description now sounds quaintly outmoded,

while the second could be applied to street gangs – today’s posses ,

massives or sets – and their secret codes. Both, however, involve

value judgements which are essentially social and not linguistic.

Attitudes to the use of language have changed profoundly over the

last three decades, and the perceived boundaries between

‘standard’ and ‘unorthodox’ are becoming increasingly ‘fuzzy’.

Today, tabloid newspapers in the UK such as the Sun , the Star

and the Sport regularly use slang in headlines and articles, while

the quality press use slang sparingly – usually for special effect –

but the assumption remains that readers have a working knowledge

of common slang terms.

There has been surprisingly little criticism of the use of slang (as

opposed to the ‘swear-words’ and supposed grammatical errors

which constantly irritate British readers and listeners). In the last

five years I have only come across one instance, reported in local

and national newspapers, of a south London secondary school head

publicly warning pupils of the dangers of using slang in their

conversation. The school in question has pupils from many ethnic

and linguistic groups – which may give a clue as to why young

people might opt for slang as a medium of communication and not

just an embellishment. Perhaps they have come to see slang as

their own common language, in which they are fluent, and which

may therefore take precedence over the other varieties in their

repertoires (Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Creole, ‘Cockney’, ‘textbook

English’ etc.). The use of slang forms part of what linguists call

code-switching or style-shifting – the mixing of and moving between

different languages, dialects or codes. This might be done for ease

Introduction

of communication, for clarification, to show solidarity or – a reason

sometimes overlooked by analysts – just for fun.

In the US, on the other hand, slang and so-called ‘vernacular’

use is still highly controversial. This stems in part from the contest

between conservatism and ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘liberalism’, which

in the late 1990s focused on the stalled attempt to establish

so-called ‘ebonics’, or black spoken English, as a linguistic variety

with official status. Recently, some North American academic

linguists and their students have joined with parents, teachers and

adult professionals to lament the corrupting and destabilising effect

of slang on young peoples’ ability to manage in formal settings such

as examinations or job interviews. Their fears can’t simply be

dismissed, but they seem to be based on a very rigid notion of

language’s potential. The key to effective communication is what

language teachers term ‘appropriacy’; knowing what kind of English

to use in a particular situation, rather than clinging to rigid ideas of

what is universally right and proper.

In my experience, most slang users are not inarticulate dupes

but quite the opposite: they are very adept at playing with

appropriacy, skilfully manipulating ironically formal, mock-

technical and standard styles of speech as well as slang. If

prompted they can often provide insights into their own language

quite as impressive as those hazarded by professional linguists or

sociologists. For this reason, for the first time in the Dictionary of

Contemporary Slang I have sometimes included, in their own words,

users’ definitions of terms and comments on their usage as well as

the direct quotations – ‘citations’ – contributed by them and

featured in previous editions.

Slang versus ‘Proper English’

Slang is language deliberately selected for its striking informality

and is consciously used in preference to ‘proper’ speech (or, more

rarely, writing). It usually originates in small social groups. For

these groups, it is a private code that embodies their particular

values and behaviour and reinforces their exclusivity. Slang

expressions may escape the originating group and become more

widely used, and although slang draws much of its effect from its

novelty, some terms ( booze, punk, cool ) may stay in the language

for many years.

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