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slang
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: slang
Slang, vernacular vocabulary not generally acceptable in formal usage. It is notable for its liveliness, humor, emphasis, brevity, novelty, and exaggeration. Most slang is faddish and ephemeral, but some words are retained for long periods and eventually become part of the standard language (e.g., phony, blizzard, movie). On the scale used to indicate a word's status in the language, slang ranks third behind standard and colloquial (or informal) and before cant. Slang often conveys an acerbic, even offensive, no-nonsense attitude and lends itself to poking fun at pretentiousness. Frequently grotesque and fantastic, it is usually spoken with intent to produce a startling or original effect. It is especially well developed in the speaking vocabularies of cultured, sophisticated, linguistically rich languages. Characteristically individual, slang often incorporates elements of the jargons of special-interest groups (e.g., professional, sport, regional, criminal, and drug subcultures). Slang words often come from foreign languages or are of a regional nature. Slang is very old, and the reasons for its development have been much investigated. The following is a small sample of American slang descriptive of a broad range of subjects: of madness—loony, nuts, psycho; of crime—heist, gat, hit, heat, grifter; of women—babe, chick, squeeze, skirt; of men—dude, hombre, hunk; of drunkenness—sloshed, plastered, stewed, looped, trashed, smashed; of drugs—horse, high, stoned, tripping; of caressing—neck, fool around, make out; of states of mind—uptight, wired, mellow, laid back; the verb to go—scram, split, scoot, tip; miscellaneous phrases—you push his buttons, get it together, chill, she does her number, he does his thing, what's her story, I'm not into that.Bibliography

See H. L. Mencken, The American Language (3 vol., 1936–48); P. Farb, Word Play (1973); J. Green, The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (1985); R. Chapman, Thesaurus of American Slang (1989); E. Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1990); J. E. Lighter, ed., Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (Vol. I, 1994; Vol. II, 1997).

The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-09 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Wikipedia search results for: Slang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo. It is also used to identify with one's peers. Few linguists have endeavored to clearly define what constitutes slang. Dumas, Bethany K. and Lighter, Jonathan "Is Slang a Word for Linguists?" American Speech 53 : 14-15. Attempting to remedy this, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered "true slang" if it meets at least two of the following criteria:
It lowers, if temporarily, "the...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: slang
Results 1 - 10  of 12
  • mugwumps

    Mugwumps, slang term in U.S. political history for the Republicans who in 1884 deserted their party nominee, James G. Blaine, to vote for the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland.See L. W. Pet...

  • Clink

    Clink, district in Southwark, a Greater London borough, England. The Clink prison was used from the 13th cent. as a detention place for heretics. Its name is now a slang term for a prison or j...

  • Partridge, Eric Honeybrook

    Partridge, Eric Honeybrook, 1894–1979, British lexicographer; b. New Zealand. He studied in Australia and at Oxford, taught briefly in England, and founded a small publishing company. For 50 y...

  • Queneau, Raymond

    Queneau, Raymond, 1903–76, French author and critic. He was an advocate of surrealism during the middle and late 1920s. Queneau is best known for his manipulations of style and language and hi...

  • rap music

    Rap music or hip-hop, genre originating in the mid-1970s among black and Hispanic performers in New York City, at first associated with an athletic style of dancing, known as breakdancing. The...

  • Panzini, Alfredo

    Panzini, Alfredo, 1863–1939, Italian novelist and lexicographer; pupil of Giosuè Carducci. He taught in secondary schools. His genial, popular novels include Libro dei morti [book of the dead]...

  • Ade, George

    Ade, George, 1866–1944, American humorist and dramatist, b. Kentland, Ind., grad. Purdue Univ., 1887. His newspaper sketches and books attracted attention for their racy and slangy idiom and f...

  • Wolfe, Tom

    Wolfe, Tom (Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.), 1931–, American journalist and novelist, b. Richmond, Va. Wolfe first gained fame for his studies of contemporary American culture in a style known as ...

  • Burgess, Anthony

    Burgess, Anthony, 1917–93, English novelist, b. Manchester as John Anthony Burgess Wilson, grad. Manchester Univ., 1940. He taught school in England and in East Asia and pursued an early inter...

  • Babel, Isaac Emmanuelovich

    Babel, Isaac Emmanuelovich, 1894–1940, Russian writer, b. Odessa. Babel was quick to embrace the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, but in the end it was the regime born of that revolution that des...

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