Cassell's Rhyming Slang |
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Jonathon Green
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Pages: 288 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0304355135
Pub: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pub date: 2000-11-16
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 652397
Editorial 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
Reader Reviews:
A Good Toilet Read (worth a butcher's anyway) (1/1 people found this helpful)
Rawle attempts to help make some sense of the seemingly non-sensical. There is a comprehensive list of definitions of mostly Cockney rhyming slang but also including some rhyming slang created outside the M25. There are some examples of rhyming slang dating way back and some originating in the very recent times. I was disappointed by 2 notable omissions:
(i)Scooby - clue (from Scooby Doo e.g. I don't have a scooby.), instead there is a definition of a prison officer (screw)
(ii)Hampden Roar - score (as in What's the score?/What's the Hampden?).
With regards to it being a good toilet read, well there are so many toilet based references..
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Reference -> Dictionaries & Thesauri -> Slang & Idioms
Books -> Subjects -> Reference -> Language
Books -> Subjects -> Reference -> Transport -> Aviation
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover
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