This ninth edition runs to 65,000 headwords, though it concentrates solely on post-1945 vocabulary. The only other heavyweight modern slang lexicographer, the late Eric Partridge, died in 1979, though a new, two-volume edition of his Dictionary Of Slang & Unconventional English has recently been published (retitled the New Partridge Dictionary). Green's work is also more geographically inclusive, covering English-language slang from all English-speaking nations, rather than limiting its scope only to America. JE Lighter's Historical Dictionary Of American Slang, a multi-volume work-in-progress, expects to define 35,000 headwords upon completion - less than half the number in Green's single volume. (Green wrote a longer history of the subject in his excellent Chasing The Sun.) Also, the (albeit limited) bibliography from the 1st edition has been deleted completely, replaced by a concise history of slang lexicography. Turning to my favourite word, for example, an incredible forty-three new variants have been added to the second edition, though four have been mysteriously removed. While there are thousands of new headwords, some old ones have gone. There are, though, some inexplicable omissions. However, in the second edition, it has been dated more specifically as "1980s+", and an extra definition has been added: "utterly defeated". In the first edition, it was broadly dated to "20C", and had only two definitions: "beaten up" and "caught red-handed". A typical example is the phrase 'done up like a kipper'. The entries and definitions have also been dramatically expanded, from 70,000 headwords in the first edition to 85,000 in the second. The text has been thoroughly revised, with many words being dated more specifically, including substantial antedating. (Compare The Oxford English Dictionary - it would never appear as Oxford's English Dictionary.) Also, "Cassell's" implies that the book was written by Cassell, not published by them.
The name Cassell doesn't appear anywhere except in the title. The first edition was published by Cassell, so the title made perfect sense, though this new edition is published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson, an imprint of Orion (Cassell's parent company). The new title is subtly though surprisingly different. This new book is a revised and expanded second edition, with a slightly tweaked title. His first comprehensive lexicon, The Cassell Dictionary Of Slang, was published in 1998. The spine remains undamaged.Jonathon Green is probably the world's foremost authority on slang. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Thus, while the core of entries have been kept in place, new research has ensured that many aspects, whether dating, definitions or etymologies, have been notably improved. Jonathon's research has not only uncovered many thousands of new slang words and expressions (12,000 of which will appear in CDS2), but has also enabled him to make a myriad improvements to the existing dictionary text.
CASSELLS DICTIONARY OF SLANG FULL
The research has thrown up some fascinating results - not least the revelation that much of the slang lexicon is far older than scholars have been hitherto aware.The full fruits of this research will appear in due course in a vast multi-volume publication but its first fruits can be seen in Cassell's Dictionary of Slang: 2nd edition (CDS2).
CASSELLS DICTIONARY OF SLANG MOVIE
This has entailed trawling through more than 4000 books - plus song lyrics, TV and movie scripts, and many newspapers and magazines - for relevant material. Jonathon Green has spent the last seven years on a vast project: to research in depth the English slang vocabulary and to hunt down and record written instances of the use of as many slang words as possible. But now the world's best single-volume dictionary of English slang is about to get even better. 'Brilliant.' said Mark Lawson on BBC2's The Late Review 'This is a terrific piece of work - learned, entertaining, funny, stimulating' said Jonathan Meades in The Evening Standard. With its unparalleled coverage of English slang of all types (from 18th-century cant to contemporary gay slang), and its uncluttered editorial apparatus, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang was warmly received when its first edition appeared in 1998.
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