Stan Kelly-Bootle began his career as a member of the earliest wave of computer programmers, who wrote prolifically about a wide range of computing issues. Back in his home town though, he's probably best known for his contributions to a lexicon of local slang, Lern Yerself Scouse, and for his canonical and not-so-canonical contributions to the British folk repertoire.
posted on May 12, 2008 - View this thread

A guide to prison slang. Texas prison guards' guide to prison slang. Jim Goad's guide to prison slang.(He should know). More prison slang.
posted on Jan 2, 2008 - View this thread

Reflection's Edge, a monthly fiction zine (back issues), has many resources for writers, including slang/dialect (don't miss the links to Texas Talk, the Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang, or the 1736 Canting Dictionary), writing advice and interviews, and advice on how to sell your story.
posted on Dec 10, 2007 - View this thread

Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue from 1811. Canting Dictionary (thieving slang) from 1736. Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes (1536–1896). Before you end up scragged, ottomised, and grinning in a glass case, you should learn to sing Frisky Moll's Song... and know what the heck it means:
A famble, a tattle, and two popps,
Had my Boman when he was ta’en;
But had he not bouz’d in the diddle shops,
He’d still been in Drury-Lane.
posted on Jul 1, 2007 - View this thread

Hundreds of 'new' words in the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary (Reuters story), also via BBC, AP and the Fox Television Stations (headline with no story, surprising since its publisher is another Rupert Murdoch subsidiary... but I digress). Some are obvious: hoodie, wiki, POTUS, plasma screen; some reflect our times: Gitmo, Londonistan, extraordinary rendition, carbon footprint; some are absolutely slangy: celebutante, McMansion, muffin top, man bag, disemvowel, barbecue stopper, girlfriend experience... Also in the book: ho. And not the version Santa Claus says. The new dictionary is available "online, on mobiles, as a desktop application or integrated with Microsoft Word" - when you buy the deadtree edition.
posted on Jun 4, 2007 - View this thread

Got Playdar? Have you been seagulled lately? Find some great new words to insert into your work, family and friendly conversation. Have you seen that new bitcom?
posted on Apr 4, 2007 - View this thread

Embrace the Suck. Intensive military activity creates an incubator for slang. By bringing together people from geographically diverse backgrounds, putting them into stressful circumstances, and teaching them a new language of jargon and acronym, the armed forces create fertile ground for new idioms - many of which return home in civvies when the conflicts are over. In the Civil War, World War I and World War II, in Korea and in Viet Nam, servicepeople created or popularized now-familiar terms like shoddy, hotshot, cooties, tailspin, fleabag, face time, joystick, SNAFU, FUBAR, flaky, gung ho, no sweat, flame-out, and many, many others. Now, the GWOT brings us a new generation of 'milspeak'. Military columnist Austin Bay has published an early collection of neologisms from Gulf War II. On NPR, Bay explains what The Suck is, how to identify a fobbit, and why Marines look down on the attitude of Semper I.
posted on Mar 31, 2007 - View this thread

Doctor's slang that might be on your chart.
posted on Aug 23, 2006 - View this thread

Do you know your close-up con games? Some classics: the Tip, the Jamaican Switch, the Wire (and its incredibly complicated cousin, the Rag), the Texas Twist, the Pigeon Drop, the Spanish Prisoner (or Nigerian Scam) and the ancient pig-in-a-poke. Also, learn the argot of the classic con artist, view some videos of card scam moves and discover some patter as well, or just see how the language of the con has been used in one of the more famous papers in sociology.
posted on Aug 8, 2006 - View this thread

Dude! ...Dude. [via AIR]
posted on Feb 4, 2006 - View this thread

Spodee (among other spellings) is a Pacific Northwest party drink, a mixture of alcohol and fruit, frequently made in a trash can and left to marinate a day or two before the party. The origin of the word is unknown, but it seems likely to come from the classic R&B song "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" by Stick McGhee, which in 1949, was the first big hit record for Atlantic Records. (More inside, including links to sound files)
posted on Feb 1, 2006 - View this thread

Crapulous, katzenjammer, tosspot- etymology of inebriation Good words for explaining what happend last night and has continued on in it's demonic form for many hours past it's welcome....
posted on Jan 1, 2006 - View this thread

The Origins and Common Usage of British Swear-words.
posted on Jul 4, 2005 - View this thread

A dictionary of old hobo slang might be a handy tool to bring along when traveling through North Bank Fred's colorful stories, photos, and chalkings of today's hobo jungles.
posted on Mar 2, 2005 - View this thread

Is your favorite swear word losing its potency? Stock up on some new ones with the Swearsaurus, a "vast array of swearing, profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, cursing, cussing, and insulting in a massive 165 languages"
posted on Feb 27, 2005 - View this thread

The Infinite Teen Slang Dictionary
For example, “screef”   ☛ from MonkeyFilter
posted on Feb 27, 2005 - View this thread

Protective Pairing for Punks: a primer on sexual relationships in prison. (no images, text mildly NSFW) Also: The Lexicon of Prison Slang, and essays by condemned prisoner Michael Hunter.
posted on Dec 14, 2004 - View this thread

Safire's latest list of slang
posted on Dec 3, 2004 - View this thread

William Safire on "the izzle": "And now, in the pages of The New York Times, there it is — a word modified with the ubiquitous izzle. Some clever Times copy editor, for a June article about Chrysler's new 300C sedan, created the headline, "Fo' Shizzle, That Big Bad Chrysler Really Does Sizzle". So now that the gray lady herself has been izzled from the inside, is it time for everyone to wish one last fond farewizzle and shed the shizzle? (MTV interview mentioned in the article is here.)
posted on Sep 21, 2004 - View this thread

William Safire on "the izzle": "And now, in the pages of The New York Times, there it is — a word modified with the ubiquitous izzle. Some clever Times copy editor, for a June article about Chrysler's new 300C sedan, created the headline, "Fo' Shizzle, That Big Bad Chrysler Really Does Sizzle". So now that the gray lady herself has been izzled from the inside, is it time for everyone to wish one last fond farewizzle and shed the shizzle? (MTV interview mentioned in the article is here.)
posted on Sep 21, 2004 - View this thread

Is Golan Cipel a "gunsel"? Gov. McGreevey's friend Golan Cipel appears to meet the original Maltese Falcon definition (a young man 'kept' for sex by an older man), but not it's later, derived one. Slantpoint provides a timeline of the relationship.
posted on Aug 13, 2004 - View this thread

Drunk Talk. Modern Drunkard's new crop of bar slang.
posted on Jul 21, 2004 - View this thread

The Online Dictionary of Playground Slang. Includes not just slang words, but also all those obnoxious rhymes we sang. "My little Pony, skinny and bony..."
posted on Apr 29, 2004 - View this thread

F-word now a word, as well as : twelve-incher, sheepshagger, and old man of the woods! The newest real English words now in the OED.
posted on Mar 22, 2004 - View this thread

Need an Idiom? Check out The Idiom Connection. Think certain phrases are such cliches that they should be banned? Before you condemn or mock them, take a moment to learn more about the origin of some of these phrases.
::via The Tower of English::
posted on Oct 7, 2003 - View this thread

Fo shizzle my nizzle! At last, the lingustic puzzle is solved, or at least attempted. Over and over. And over. Definition - "for the sizzle" of tasty burgers on the grill. Often used by members of lower classes because they cannot taste the tasty burgers, nor enjoy the sizzle.
posted on May 23, 2003 - View this thread

Learn urban lingo from your friends at the The Source For Youth Ministry. Fo' shizzle mah nizzle.
posted on May 5, 2003 - View this thread

10 disgusting things traditional Irish flute players do - along with a guide to the Irish flute, a few flute clips and a bleedin' deadly guide to Irish slang.
posted on Mar 17, 2003 - View this thread

So this is what is means to be hip. (NY TIMES link)

What ''The Preppie Handbook'' did for whale belts and synonyms for vomiting, ''The Hipster Handbook'' accomplishes for this generation's stylistic and linguistic signs and signifiers."

According to the book, "deck" means "cool", "tassel" is a girl, "bust a moby" means to dance, and a "frado" is an ugly guy who thinks he is good looking. Being a member of said generation myself, I can honestly say that I have never ever heard anyone speak this way. Maybe I'm just too "ishtar". Do you think the Hipster Handbook captures today's, um, deck kids accurately? What would your Hipster Handbook include?
posted on Feb 13, 2003 - View this thread

Not sure if someone wants to beat you, or is asking for a date? Literal vreakdowns of American slang, including explanations of expressions found in movies and pop music. Don't miss the the literally Boschian body-parts slang or the insults, including the classic "I hate you, and if a horse had brought you here, I'd hate it just as much, if not more."
posted on Dec 8, 2002 - View this thread

Vaudeville Slang. A boffo glossary of the language of American Vaudeville. Visit the main site for tons of links to famous performers and theatres. For more hokum, you can visit here to watch and hear some actual Vaudeville acts. No applesauce!
posted on Nov 21, 2002 - View this thread

Have you got your boots on, Jack? Do you collar this jive? Listen all you righteous cats and canaries, it's copacetic. Don't be a hincty Jeff. Put on your cogs, get in there and focus on how to speak hip so you can dig what I am laying my racket about.
posted on Sep 19, 2002 - View this thread

Noitnetta Setiretlifatem [NYTimes] The French are now even more confusing. Verlan [2] [3] is the modern Pig Latin of France.
posted on Aug 18, 2002 - View this thread

They might actually be, you know, be useful. This year, a student in Nebraska won $1000 for finding the worst example of overuse of the phrase 'you know,' by an athlete who said it 30 times in a 135 second interview. But are they really that terrible? Known as discourse markers, phrases such as 'you know' and 'I mean' are thought to be essential in conveying information in conversation and helping us understand each other. Discourse markers also exist in many other languages and possibly even ancient languages.
posted on May 15, 2002 - View this thread

A Glossary of HardBoiled Slang will allow you to understand such wonderful, alliterative phrases as:

"You dumb mug, get your mitts off the marbles before I stuff that mud-pipe down your mush - and tell your moll to hand over the mazuma."

Welcome to the world of HardBoiled Fiction. Take some time to brush up on the classics.
posted on Apr 27, 2002 - View this thread

Learn Irish Slang In Under 20 Seconds
Jaysus - an expression of disbelief or despair: "Jaysus! Didya see that?" "Jaysus woman! Will ya leave me be?"
discuss amongst the fecking banjaxed gobshites in your midst.
posted on Mar 10, 2002 - View this thread

I was talking to my wife this morning about one of the kids "bombing" a test at school, and she asked me, "Is that good or bad?" I said, "Bad, of course. You know, you bomb a test, that means either flunking it or close to it." She said, "No, not any more, like 'it's the bomb' or 'we bombed that hill' on skateboards. Bombing is a good thing." Certain words and phrases are changing their meanings. Have you found yourself tongue-tied?
posted on Oct 11, 2001 - View this thread

Polish slang! Having just moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the heart of Polish New York City, I've been digging for Polish links. English-Polish computing dictionary. Useful Polish phrases, with audio. Simple Polish lessons and email list. Polish spelling dictionary. Warsaw Voice English-language newspaper. Warsaw Business Journal, in English. Warsaw Insider, a city guide. Portal for Wroclaw, capital of Lower Silesia. Kracow Academic Radio. Radio KRAJ from Brisbane. Polish Reader's Digest. Finally, The Official Site of His Serene Highness Dennis Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt.
posted on Sep 8, 2001 - View this thread

Go to jail. Snag a ace boon coon, avoid the toosh hogs and dream of tack heads.
posted on Jun 20, 2001 - View this thread

The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy: An Interactive Study Since the development of carbonated beverage in 1886, one of linguistic geography's most important and least investigated phenomena has been the sharp regional divisions in the use of the terms "pop" and "soda."
posted on Apr 18, 2001 - View this thread

Cor, Blimey Guv'nor! It's the English/Cockney Rhyming Slang Dictionary! Very useful if you don't know your John Cleese's from your Duke of Kent's. Once you've mastered the art, you'll have no trouble understanding this passage.
posted on Feb 24, 2001 - View this thread

Ooooh, those trendy young Brits and their funny new words. What I can't help wondering is how many people have been sending in made up slang. (via clog).
posted on Dec 14, 2000 - View this thread

Benoit's article on hip hop slang and mass media poses some interesting questions, albeit briefly. There's certainly no reason the two can't coexist...
posted on Aug 14, 2000 - View this thread

Does Gareth Branwyn's / WIRED's Jargon Watch ever acknowledge its debt to Eric Raymond's Jargon File? I mean, the File's revision history states clearly that it began in 1975-- considerably before WIRED came to the trough --so isn't this Jargon Watch book just a rip-off of the print verison of the Jargon File, The New Hacker's Dictionary?
posted on Jun 18, 2000 - View this thread

Everyone wants to be l33t. Now it's even easier with this handy guide.
posted on Mar 26, 2000 - View this thread

Just in case you're in Britain and happen to commit a felony, don't be caught unprepared. Visit the site of HM Prison Service and get up to date with your British prisoner slang.
posted on Sep 15, 1999 - View this thread