A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
| Author | Eric Partridge |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | slang |
| Publisher | Routledge |
|
Publication date
|
1937 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 499105143 |
A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a dictionary of slang originally compiled by the noted lexicographer of the English language, Eric Partridge. The first edition was published in 1937 and seven editions were eventually published by Partridge. An eighth edition was published in 1984, after Partridge's death, by editor Paul Beale; in 1990 Beale published an abridged version, Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.
The dictionary was updated in 2005 by Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor as The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, and again in 2007 as the The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, which has additional entries compared to the 2005 edition, but omits the extensive citations.
Partridge published seven editions of his "hugely influential"slang dictionary before his death in 1979. The dictionary was "regarded as filling a lexicographical gap" in the English language because it contained entries on words that had long been omitted from other works, such as the Oxford English Dictionary. For the two editions published before the Second World War, obscenity laws prohibited full printing of vulgar words; Partridge therefore substituted asterisks for the vowels of words considered obscene.
The New York Times offered a "glowing" review of the 1937 first edition.Literary critic Edmund Wilson praised the dictionary, stating that the work "ought to be acquired by every reader who wants his library to have a sound lexicographical foundation". In 1985, John Gross of the New York Times called A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English "the nearest thing to a standard work in its field". In a 2002 review of the eighth edition, University College London Professor of English John Mullan argued that the "strength and weakness" of the dictionary was Partridge's "willingness to include his opinions [on word etymology] in what presented itself as a work of reference". However, Mullan also argued that by 2002 the dictionary entries were growing continually further out of date and out of touch with modern slang usages.
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