Word: slang
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...DICTIONARY OF SLANG AND UNCONVENTIONAL ENGLISH, by Eric Partridge (1,362 pp.; Macmillan; $16). The fifth edition of this highly regarded work is considerably enlarged, and an even greater delight to logomaniacs than the first four. Lexicographer Partridge pads resolutely after creeping neologism, and one finds that since 1920 "without a mintie" has been Australian sporting slang for penniless, and that "boat race" is current Cockney rhyming slang for face. There is no end to this; it is ceaselessly fascinating to learn that between 1780 and 1830, "to dance the Paddington frisk" meant to be hanged, that "painted mischief...
...wordwise, science by far outdoes slang in supplying neologisms. Chemistry alone accounts for 17,000 words, culled from 250,000 new derivatives since 1934. Medicine yields the longest word, topping antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters) with pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45), a lung disease afflicting miners. Conversely, one of the shortest words, set, requires the longest definition -more than a full page, which took one editor 6½ weeks to write...
Sportsed Slams Slang...
...most perfect squelch I've heard about sports slang came from one of our young writers arguing that "Bosox" and "Chisox" were ridiculous. His opponent in the debate continued to say that such words made it easier for headlines. The first man answered: "I can see it now. WASHNATS COP PAIR." HOWARD KLEINBERG Executive Sports Editor Miami News Miami...
Died. Louis-Ferdinand Celine, 67, Parisian-born novelist-physician, a tortured ("I cashed in on my neuroses") iconoclast and virulent anti-Semite whose deafening, nightmarish and slang-ridden novels, Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan, set the salons aboil before his conviction (later rescinded) as a World War II collaborator with the Nazis; of a stroke; in Meudon, France...