Descriptive, not prescriptive: this is language as it is used, whether we like it or not. It’s here in all its cruelty and glory, with no pulled punches. Green says “Slang is as it is, and what it is is largely cruel.” True dat, as they say. Partridge’s work is a product of its time, and so is Green’s. Green points out that this was in keeping with the culture of the time, and nothing more or less should be inferred from it. Therefore, in his work you’ll find “shit” as the main entry (because it’s a dictionary, yo), but its related terms blank the vowel (“s–t-stirrer”). He’s another slang lexicographer, whom Green calls “my great predecessor.” For Partridge, the language of insults was quite acceptable ( nigger, queer, wog, etc.) but writing out terms for bodily functions and sex was taboo. The name Eric Partridge may not mean anything to you, but you might want to do an internet search so you won’t remain clueless. What was taboo in 1937 (the publication date of Eric Partridge’s slang dictionary) is no longer such in 2015, nor was it in 2008. What interested me about this section is the discussion of how “offensive” has changed over time. It’s about talking shit both behind their backs and in their faces. It’s about fucking with people’s sense of self-worth.

There you’ll find the usual “how this book is organized” and “how we settled on dates” and “where we sourced this information” and also a section on “Insult and offence.” THAT is what I found fascinating. Of greater interest to me than the actual entries is what Green has to say in his introduction. I need something like this, or more esoteric materials I probably wouldn’t pay for but can find online (18th-century naval slang, anyone?). For myself, I have a greater need for the older words because my editing projects tend toward historical fiction. I don’t know what your budget is, but mine says “get the smaller, less pricey one, okay? Thanks.” Unless you’re running a library, you’ll probably do just fine with this one and an internet connection for the newer material. However, this title can be had for about $25 the three-volume set runs about $600. Green later produced a three-volume, fully cited work in 2010.

Now that that’s out of the way (I know you assholes, you always look for fuck first in any dictionary you open, just so you can point and giggle like you were 12 - and some of you are 12, so yeah, okay), I can move on to the actual review.īe aware that this book was completed in 2008. For fuck there are seven and a half columns of entries, beginning with (of course) fuck as a noun - which, actually, gets fewer than two of those columns to itself as a noun - and ending with fuck you and its sub-entries of “fuck-you money,” “ fuck you, Charley,” and “fuck you, Jack, I’m all right.”

Jonathan green dictionary of slang