Slang dictionary

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A slang dictionary is a reference book containing an alphabetical list of slang, vernacular vocabulary not generally acceptable in formal usage, usually including information given for each word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.

They can provide definitions on a range of slang from more mundane terms (like rain check) to obscure sexual practices. Such works also include words and phrases arising from different dialects and argots which may or may not have passed into more common usage. They can also track the changing meaning of the terms over time and space as they migrate and mutate. This can make them of interest to a variety of people from oral historians to etymologists to the casual browser.

[edit] Famous slang dictionaries

Slang dictionaries have been around for a long time. The Canting Academy, or Devil's Cabinet Opened was a seventeenth century slang dictionary written in 1673 by Richard Head that looked to define Thieves' cant. Another early slang dictionary was Francis Grose's 'A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, first published in 1785.

In recent years dictionaries with a more academic focus have tried to bring together etymological studies in an attempt to provide definitive guides to slang while avoiding problems arising from folk etymology and false etymology. The study of slang is now taken seriously with academics, especially lexicographers like Eric Partridge, devoting their energies to the field and publishing on it, including producing slang dictionaries.

Examples include:

Cassell Dictionary of Slang (by Jonathon Green, Cassell Reference, originally published 1998, current edition 2006, ISBN 0304366366)
A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (by Eric Partridge and Paul Beale, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415291895)
The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang (by John Ayto and John Simpson, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0198610521)

There have also been more tongue-in-cheek efforts which tend to focus on the more vulgar slang terms:

Roger's Profanisaurus Rex: The Ultimate Swearing Dictionary (third edition, Viz, 2005, ISBN 0752228129)

The Urban Dictionary occupies a similar end of the spectrum. While offering definitions for actual terms, it relies on user contributions which can introduce both humour and inaccuracies. It has also recently been published in book form: