The Largest Historic Dictionary of English Slang Now Free On-line: Covers 500 Years of the “Vulgar Tongue”

“The three vol­umes of Inexperienced’s Dic­tio­nary of Slang demon­strate the sheer scope of a life­time of analysis by Jonathon Inexperienced, the lead­ing slang lex­i­cog­ra­ph­er of our time. A comment­ready col­lec­tion of this typically reviled however finish­much less­ly fas­ci­nat­ing space of the Eng­lish lan­guage, it cov­ers slang from the previous 5 cen­turies proper as much as the current day, from all of the dif­fer­ent Eng­lish-speak­ing coun­tries and areas. Complete­ing 10.3 mil­lion phrases and over 53,000 entries, the col­lec­tion professional­vides the def­i­n­i­tions of 100,000 phrases and over 413,000 cita­tions. Each phrase and phrase is authen­ti­cat­ed by gen­uine and ful­ly-ref­er­enced cita­tions of its use, giv­ing the work a lev­el of writer­i­ty and schol­ar­ship unmatched by any oth­er pub­li­ca­tion on this discipline.”

Should you head over to Ama­zon, that’s how you will see Inexperienced’s Dic­tio­nary of Slang pitched to con­sumers. The dic­tio­nary is an attrac­tive three-vol­ume, hard-bound set. However it comes at a worth. $1,327.78.

Now comes the excellent news. Inexperienced’s Dic­tio­nary of Slang has develop into avail­ready as a free internet­web site, giv­ing you entry to an much more updat­ed ver­sion of the dic­tio­nary. Col­lec­tive­ly, the online­web site enables you to hint the devel­op­ment of slang over the previous 500 years. And, as Males­tal Floss notes, the location “permits lookups of phrase def­i­n­i­tions and ety­molo­gies at no cost, and, for a well-worth-it sub­scrip­tion charge, it affords cita­tions and extra exten­sive search choices.” Should you’ve ever gained­dered in regards to the imply­ing of phrases like child­ly­wink, gol­lier, and lint­head, you now know the place to start.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Cab Calloway’s “Hep­ster Dic­tio­nary,” A 1939 Glos­sary of the Lin­go (the “Jive”) of the Harlem Renais­sance

When J.R.R. Tolkien Labored for the Oxford Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary and “Realized Extra … Than Any Oth­er Equal Peri­od of My Life” (1919–1920)

Oh My God! Win­ston Churchill Acquired the First Ever Let­ter Con­tain­ing “O.M.G.” (1917)

Dic­tio­nary of the Previous­est Writ­ten Language–It Took 90 Years to Com­plete, and It’s Now Free On-line