dictionary of slang and unconventional english potx

This is trial version www.adultpdf.com The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unc onventional English The Concise New Partridge presents, for the first time, all the slang terms from the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English in a single volume. With over 60,000 entries from around the English-speaking world, the Concise gives you the language of beats, hipsters, Teddy Boys, m ods and rockers, hippies, pimps, druggies, whores, punks, skinheads, ravers, surfers, Valley girls, dudes, pill-popping truck drivers, hackers, rappers and more. The Concise New Partridge is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com This is trial version www.adultpdf.com The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unc onventional English Tom Dalzell (Senior Editor) and Terry Victor (Editor) This is trial version www.adultpdf.com This is trial version www.adultpdf.com CONTENTS List of contributors vii Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Observations on slang and unconventional English xv Entries A to Z 1 Numeric slang 721 This is trial version www.adultpdf.com This is trial version www.adultpdf.com This is trial version www.adultpdf.com heard and used at any time after 1945. We chose the end of the war in 1945 as our starting point primarily because it marked the beginning of a series of profound cultural changes that produced the lexicon of modern and contemporary slang. The cultural transformations since 1945 are mind-boggling. Television, computers, drugs, music, unpopular wars, youth movements, changing racial sensitivities and attitudes towards sex and sexuality are all substantial factors that have shaped culture and language. No term is excluded on the grounds that it might be considered offensive as a racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or any kind of slur. This dictionary contains many entries and citations that will, and should, offend. To exclude a term or citation because it is offensive is to deny the fact that it is used: we are not prescriptivists and this is simply not our job. At the same time, we try to avoid definitions or editorial comment that might offend. We were tempted, but finally chose not to include an appendix of gestures, although many serve the same function as slang. Examples include the impudent middle finger, Ralph Cramden’s Raccoon greeting and handshake, the elaborate mimes that signal ‘jerk-off’ or ‘dickhead’, Johnny Carson’s golf swing, Vic Reeves’ lascivious thigh rubbing and Arsenio Hall’s finger-tip-touch greeting. Neither did we include an appendix of computer language such as emoticons or leet speak, although we have included throughout several of the more prominent examples of Internet and text messaging shorthand that have become k nown outside the small circle of initial users. We tried but in the end decided not to include the word/word phenomenon (‘Is she your friend friend or friend friend?’) or the word/word/word construction (‘The most important three things in real estate are l ocation, location, location’). We could not include the obvious pregnant silence that suggests ‘fuck’ (‘What the **** do you think you’re doing?’). We shied away from the lexicalised animal noises that often work their way into informal conversation, such as a cat noise when someone is behaving nastily. We similarly did not include musical phrases that have become part of our spoken vocabulary, such as the four-note theme of The Twilight Zone which is used to imply an uncanny weirdness in any coincidence, or melodramatic hummed violin music that serves as vocal commentary on any piteous tale. Using The Concise New Partridge We hope that our presentation is self-evident and that it requires little explanation. We use only a few abbreviations and none of the stylistic conceits near and dear to the hearts of lexicographers. Headwords We use indigenous spelling for headwords. This is especially relevant in the case of the UK arse and US ass. For Yiddish words, we use Leo Rosten’s spelling, which favours ‘sh-’ over ‘sch-’. An initialism is shown in upper case without full stops (for example, BLT), except that acronyms (pronounced like individual lexical items) are lower case (for example, snafu). Including every variant s pelling of a headword seemed neither practical nor helpful to the r eader. For the spelling of headwords, we chose the form found in standard dictionaries or the most common f o rms, ignoring uncommon variants as well as common hyphenation variants of compounds and words ending in ‘ie’ or ‘y’. For this reason, citations may show variant spellings not found in the headword. Placement of phrases As a general rule, phrases are placed under their first sig- nificant wor d. However, some invariant phrases are listed as headwords; for example, a stock greeting, stock reply or catchphrase. Terms that involve a single concept are grouped together as phrases under the common headword; for example, burn rubber, lay rubber and peel rubber are all listed as phrases under the headword rubber. Definition In dealing with slang from all seven c ontinents, we encountered more than a few culture-specific terms. For such terms, we identify the domain or geographic location of the term’s usage. We use conventional English in the definitions, turning to slang only when it is both substantially more economical than the use of convention- al English and is readily understood by the average reader. Gloss The voice and tone of The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is most obvious in the gloss: the brief explanations that P artridge used for ‘edi- torial comment’ or ‘further elucidation’. Partridge warned against using the gloss to show what clever and learned fellows we are – a warning that we heed to the very limited extent it could apply to us. We chose to discontinue Partridge’s classification by register. Country of origin As is the case with dating, further research will undoubtedly produce a shift in the country of origin for a number of entries. We resolutely avoided guesswork and informed opinion. Dating Even Beale, who as editor of the 8th edition was the direct inheritor of Partridge’s trust, noted that Partridge’s dating ‘must be treated with caution’. We recognise that the accurate dating of slang is far more difficult than dating conventional language. Virtually every word in our lexicon is spoken before it is written, and this is especially true of unconventional terms. The rec e nt proliferation of elec- tronic databases and powerful search engines will undoubtedly permit the antedating of many of the entries. Individualised dating research, such as Allen Walker’s hunt for the origin of ‘OK’ or Barry Popik’s exhaustive work on terms such as ‘hot dog’, produces dramatic antedatings: we could not undertake this level of detailed research f o r every entry. Conclusion In the pref ace to his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson noted that ‘A large work is difficult because it is large,’ and that ‘Every writer of a long work commits errors’. In addition to improvements in our dating of terms and identification of the country of origin, it is inevitable that some of our definitions are Prefac e x This is trial version www.adultpdf.com incorrect or misleading, especially where the sense is subtle and fleeting, defying paraphrasing, or where kindred senses are interwoven. It is also inevitable that some quotations are included in a mistaken sense. For these errors, we apologise in advance. We carry the flame for words that are usually judged only b y the ill-regarded company they keep. Just as Partridge did for the sixteenth century beggars and rakes, for whores of the eighteenth century, and for the armed services of the two world wars, we try to do for the slang users of the last 60 years. We embrace the language of beats, hipsters, Teddy Boys, mods and rockers, hippies, pimps, druggies, whores, punks, skinheads, ravers, surfers, Valley Girls, dudes, pill-popping truck drivers, hackers, rappers and more. We have tried to do what Partridge saw as necessary, which was simply to keep up to date. Tom Dalzell, Berkeley, California Terry Victor, Caerwent, South Wales Spring 2005 Re-edited for the Concise edition in the spring of 2007 xi Prefac e This is trial version www.adultpdf.com [...]... vitiating the taste and the skill that he brings to the using of that vocabulary Except in formal and dignified writing and in professional speaking, a vivid and extensive slang is perhaps preferable to a jejune and meagre vocabulary of standard English; on the other hand, it will hardly be denied that, whether in writing or speech, a sound though restricted vocabulary of standard English is preferable... to have much influenced the language of the mother country whether in Standard 1 or in unconventional English Usage and Abusage Some of the upstart qualities [of slang] and part of the aesthetic (as opposed to the moral) impropriety spring from the four features present in all slang, whatever the period and whatever the country: the search for novelty; volatility and light-headedness as well as light-heartedness;... Olberman of ESPN, borrowed from Monty Python and the Holy Grail US, 1975 and will! used for expressing a commitment to do something US, 1947 Andy Capp’s Commandos nickname the Army Catering Corps, the ACC A humorous elaboration of the official military abbreviation Andy Capp is the workshy hero of a long-running cartoon strip UK, 1995 Andy Gump noun the surgical removal of the mandible in the treatment of. .. usually called, Standard English Purists have risen in their wrath and conservatives in their dignity to defend the Bastille of linguistic purity against the revolutionary rabble The very vehemence of the 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Slang Today and Yesterday, 1933: George Routledge & Sons, London Slang Today and Yesterday, 1933, quoting Greenough and Kittredge, Words and their Ways in English Speech,... to leave Teen slang US, 1958 agitprop noun agitation and propaganda as an unfocused political tactic; a fashionable genre of theatre arts with a (usually) left-wing political agenda Adopted from the name given to a department of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party responsible for agitation and propaganda on behalf of communist ideals; a conflation of agitatsiya and propaganda UK, 1934... synonymous et cetera UK, 1984 and like it! used in anticipation of a grousing reponse to an order Naval use UK, 1943 and like that et cetera; and so on US, 1977 and monkeys might fly out of my butt used as a reflection of the high unlikelihood of something happening US, 1992 andro adjective androgynous US, 1999 android noun a patient with no normal laboratory values US, 1994 and so it goes used as an ironic... the imp of perversity that lurks in every heart, the impulse to rebellion, and that irrepressible spirit of adventure which, when deprived of its proper outlook in action, perforce contents itself with verbal audacity (the adventure of speech): these and others 1 are at the root of slang[ .] Here, There and Everywhere When we come to slang and familiar speech generally, we come to that department of the... yet devoid of literary value But ever since my taste acquired a standard, I have been able to extract some profit from even the most trashy 14 book There is far more imagination and enthusiasm in the making of a good dictionary than in the average 15 novel Words at War: Words at Peace For over a century, there have been protests against the use of slang and controversies on the relation of slang to the... 1832 and all that 1 used for intensifying US, 1992 2 et cetera UK, 1931 and all that caper et cetera UK, 1964 and all that jazz and so on From JAZZ (nonsense) US, 1959 and a merry Christmas to you too! used ironically in response to a disparagement or an insult UK, 1976 and and and and so on, etc UK, 1984 and away we go! used as a humorous signal that something has just started A signature line of comedian... Jackie Gleason US, 1954 and co and the rest of them (of people or things with something in common) UK, 1757 Anderson cart noun a cart made from a cut-down car and pulled by horses, during the 1930s depression; later, any car that ran out of petrol or broke down CANADA, 1987 Andes candy noun cocaine A near reduplication based on the cocoa grown in the Andes Mountains US, 1990 and everything used for . Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unc onventional English The Concise New Partridge presents, for the first time, all the slang terms from the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. the language of the mother country whether in Standard or in unconventional English. 1 Usage and Abusage Some of the upstart qualities [of slang] and part of the aesthetic (as opposed to the moral). is readily understood by the average reader. Gloss The voice and tone of The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is most obvious in the gloss: the brief explanations