The Stories of Slang

By turns bawdy, sweary and irreverent, this book … is a fascinating look at how centuries of slang came to inform all aspects of social life, how it was used, and how much of it still lingers. * History Revealed *Few lexicographers are lucky enough to have both endlessly pleasurable work and the talent to write amusingly about [slang]. Jonathon Green is one … Glorious … Lovers of language should be grateful to those who create slang, and to those few like Mr Green who make it their work to open this window into the psyche for the benefit of all. * The Economist *A smorgasbord of some of slang’s choicer, tangier delights, given in such abundance that it overspills the table … if you’re up for an adventure through the back alleys of English, The Stories of Slang will not disappoint – Kory Stamper * Times Literary Supplement *

JONATHON GREEN, known as ‘Mr Slang’, is the world’s leading lexicographer of dictionaries of anglophone slang. His first dictionary appeared in 1984 and since then he has written and broadcast widely on the subject. The Cassell Dictionary of Slang appeared in 1998, the Chambers Dictionary of Slang in 2008 and the three-volume Green’s Dictionary of Slang in 2010. The material, which deals with the slang of every English-speaking country, dates from approximately 1400 and continues as far as possible to the present day. As of 2016, this has been available online and is expanded and revised in quarterly updates. At present it offers approximately 140,000 slang words and phrases, underpinned by around 635,000 citations or illustrative examples.

Green has also written a history of lexicography (Chasing the Sun: Dictionary-Makers and the Dictionary They Made, 1996), a history of slang (Language! 500 Years of the Vulgar Tongue, 2014) and a ‘lexico-biography’ (Odd Job Man, 2014). Other slang-related titles include The Slang Thesaurus (1988), Slang Down the Ages (1993), Getting Off at Gateshead (2008), Crooked Talk (2016) and The Stories of Slang (2016). His ongoing collection of The Timelines of Slang (the chronological ordering of the slang vocabularies of the counter-language’s favourite topics) is available online.