Cassell's Rhyming Slang - Hardcover

Jonathon Green

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0304355135 ISBN 13: 9780304355136

Publisher: Cassell & Co., 2000

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The most important and comprehensive collection of rhyming slang ever published

Lists, defines and explains over 3000 rhyming slang words and phrases

Provides etymologies and dates of first use for all words and phrases

�Bilingual� approach allows the reader to �learn� rhyming slang as well as look it up.

Embellished with 20 collage illustrations by Graham Rawle, creator of The Guardian�s Lost Consonants

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Review:

"His attacker came at him with a husband and wife so he fired his hot cross bun, putting a Ruud Gullit in his chest." Imagine that if you can! But then you don't have to as Graham Rawle (of Lost Consonants and Diary of an Amateur Photographer fame) has created it for you in just one of the surreal collages that illustrate the Dictionary of Rhyming Slang. Jonathon Green's erudite, amusing and witty little book is beautifully packaged and easy to dip into. With more than 3,000 examples of rhyming slang, both current and obsolete, the book is a mixture of serious information and tongue-in-cheek humour. Rhyming Slang is divided into three main sections: the Introduction, Dictionary and Thesaurus. In the first section, Green gives a potted history of rhyming slang, tracing it from its origins in late 18th/19th-century London to its existence today, as part of everyday English vernacular. The Dictionary section is concise and easy to use. It is broken up from being a monotonous list of entries by the inclusion of humorous subcategories such as "The Cockney Riviera", which features Brighton Pier (queer), Margate sands (hands) and Southend-on-Sea (pee/wee) and "What the Dickens?", in which the "artful dodger" (lodger), "Oliver Twist" (pissed) and "Uriah Heep" (creep) all make their appearance. The last section, the Thesaurus, is arranged thematically and covers everything from Bodily Functions, Food, Money and Relationships to Sex and the Weather. The Dictionary of Rhyming Slang is a great buy as a present or just as a much-deserved treat for yourself, and it won't break the bank. --Aruna Vasudevan

Book Description:

The first truly comprehensive modern survey of one of the most fascinating and appealing areas of English slang, from Britain�s premier slang lexicographer.

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