Dr. Robert Burchfield Knihy

<i>Dollars to doughnuts</i>, your reference shelf lacks a good slang dictionary, and that's a <i>fine how-de-do</i>. Whether you're a <i>stuffy</i> writer looking to <i>gussy up</i> your prose, a <i>poindexter</i> who thinks studying dictionaries is the <i>cat's pajamas</i>, or a <i>muttonheaded fogey</i> hoping to <i>get a clue</i>, Robert Chapman's <i>Dictionary of American Slang</i> fills the bill. Containing more than 19,000 terms of American slang, this lexicon represents all periods of American history, from phrases out of the 1880s, such as <i>carrot-top</i> for "redhead," to current '90s jargon such as <i>carjacking</i>. It covers the widely acceptable and the taboo, slang from cowboys and railroad workers and slang from rock &amp; rollers, corporate America, and the gay community. It includes obsolete phrases such as <i>canoeing</i> for "making-out," and up-to-date terms relating to technology, such as <i>listserv</i> for "electronic mail list." Each item features pronunciation guides, word origins, and usage examples, and words that are derogatory or impolite are clearly labeled as such. A <i>righteous</i> reference and a <i>lulu</i> of a browser, the <i>Dictionary of American Slang</i>is an elegantly produced and scholarly rigorous linguistic <i>knockout</i>. <i>--Stephanie Gold</i>