Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms

Paul Dickson

Sep 2010 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

Whether you want to be privy to the inside banter of the boardroom, backroom or the Washington Beltway, Slang is an indispensable resource, and a lot of fun. Slang is evidence that the spoken language is continually changing to meet new needs for verbal expressions, tailored to changing realities and perceptions. Unlike most slang dictionaries that list entries alphabetically, Slang takes on modern American English one topic at a time, from "auctionese" to "computerese", the drug trade and sports slang. Slang was originally published by Pocket Books in 1990 in paperback and revised in 1998 in hardcover and paperback. The new Slang has 50% new material, including new chapters on slang associated with work cubicles, gaming, hip hop, and coffeehouses. Dickson brings slang into the twenty-first century with such blogger slang as TMPMITW, which stands for "the most powerful man in the world" (the president). Whether you want to be privy to the inside banter of the boardroom, backroom or the Washington Beltway, Slang is an indispensable resource, and a lot of fun.

About the author

Paul Dickson, coauthor of The Bonus Army, has written numerous language books and dictionaries, including War Slang, The Congress Dictionary, and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary. He has written for Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. A founding member and former president of Washington Independent writers and a member of the National Press Club, Dickson is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a former consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc.