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REPORTS ONLt:XICOGRAPlHCAl,
A N D
EXlCOLOGICAl, PROJECTS
A
labour so
ungratefu :
Report
ofa
project
to
update
Eric Partridge s ictionary
ofsl ng and unconventional
English
T om
Dal/ell
Terry
Victor
John
Williams
r johnw@whoever .com)
Freelance
Lexicographers
Abstract
This paper
offers
brief
account
of
th e
urrent
project
to
update
Eric
Partridge's Dictionary of
Slang
and
Unconventional
English, th e last
edition
ofwhich appeared in
1984. Much ofPartridge's original effort
w as
concerned
with
th e
slang
ofthe years
1890 to
1945 ;
th e present editors
aim
to
bring
it
up
to th e present day,
concentrating
on
terms m at have been
current at any time
since
1945 .
For th e
first time
in
a
Partridge
DSUE,
American
slang
is being
given
equal
coverage, an d there will be significant
inclusions
from
World
English.
A t
th e level ofindividual entries, th e spirit and tone
ofPartridge's
original is conveyed mainly
through
th e
'gloss',
a
discursive
note covering
anything
from etymology, to synonyms, to examples ofusage Th e
dictionary
text is
being
held
as
a
database
of
XM L
files,
nd
an
account
of
compiling procedures
s
given.
A
wide
range of
fictional,
non-fictional,
an d
audiovisual texts ar e
being
used
as
primary
sources
of
new
material.
Entries
from
previous editions
ofthe
dictionary
ar e
being
retained
where
appropriate.
Introduction
Eric
Partridge,
with
his
Dictionary
ofSlang
and
Unconventional
English,
made
a
profound
contribution
to th e
study
and
understanding
of
non-standard
English.
is body
of
work,
widely
acknowledged scholarship
an d
dignity
of
approach
se t
th e standard
fo r
every
other
English-language
slang
lexicographer
ofthe
20th century. Th e
first
edition was published in
1937, with
he
ighth nd
atest
dition DSUE8)
ppearing
n
984.
ork
s
now
n
progress on a substantial revision, to be entitled th e New Partridge
Dictionary
ofSlang
and
Unconventional
English
(henceforth referred
to
as
New
Partridge).
Th e
dictionary
will
be
published by Routledge
(Taylor
&
Francis)
an d is
scheduled
to appear
in
2005.
This
paper
offers a briefaccount ofthe
proposed
content
and
methodology
ofthe new
dictionary.
Th e
previous
editions
ofthe
DSUE
have
recorded
and
defined
th e
slang
and
unconventional
English f
Great
ritain,
nd o esser xtent
er
ominions,
ver
eriod
f
approximately
350 years from th e
1600's
through th e 1970's .
For th e years up until 1890,
Partridge
was
by
his
ow n
dmission
quite
eliant
on
Farmer an d
Henley's Slang
and
its
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R E P O R T S ON LEXICOGRAPHICAL AN D LEXICOLOGICAL
PROJECTS
Partridge]
ould
aintain
he
lightest
uthority
ere
merica's
ontribution
o e
overlooked .
New
Partridge
will
herefore
be
th e
irst
truly
global
collection
of
English
slang.
W H E N : Since World W ar II. Th e great strength ofPartridge's
work
was th e slang ofthe late
19th century through to
th e
end
ofthe Second World
War.
New Partridge is focusing
on
slang
an d
unconventional English heard since World
W ar
II. However, words or phrases
coined prior
to
World W ar
II but
still heard
after
World
W ar II
will
be
included,
as
well as
words or phrases not heard after World W ar
II
but
possessing
a core historical value which
contributes significantly to
the
reader's
appreciation
and
understanding
ofpost-1945 slang.
Microstructure
Each
entry will
typically
consist ofheadword, word class,
definition,
'gloss' (ofwhich more
below),
followed,
where
necessary,
by a
broad
geographical indication
and
an
approximate
dating
or
earliest
recorded
use.
Some sample
draft
entries are
shown
in
Appendix
.
Th e
efinition
tyle
s neutral n one,
nd
dopts he usual
orms nd
ordings
or
native-speaker dictionaries.
hen
ppropriate he
efinitions
ill
e hose
ritten
y
Partridge
or Beale
fo r
DSUE8. But it is
in
th e
discursive
'glosses' that th e
voice
and
tone
of
New Partridge will be most
obviously
established. The gloss may include
any
or all
ofthe
following:
a)
he
main users
of
th e
term or
phrase, on
a
cultural, demographic, an
r
geographical
basis;
b)
tymology,
including
false
or folk etymologies
which
should be dispelled;
c) llustrative xamples f
usage, rawn ro m wide ange f
written, usical, nd
audiovisual sources;
d)
nformation concerning
the
tone
of
voice or gestures
used
when
uttering th e
word
or
phrase;
e)
egreeofstigmatizationortaboo;
f) ynonyms, antonyms,
an d
collocates;
g) dentification
of
th e entry by figure
of speech or rhetorical
device
(such
as
metaphor,
metonym,
synecdoche,
euphemism,
dysphemism,
reduplication,
rhyme,
clipping,
etc).
The
glosses
afford
th e
compilers
a degree
of flexibility
n presenting
th e
information
and
developing
a personal
tone,
which could be scholarly or amusing by turns.
Partridge
noted
that he was invited to 'write - not merely compile'
[Crystal 1980] a dictionary ofslang and
unconventional
nglish,
nd
e
as
ttuned
o
he
lement
f
reativity n
he
lexicographer's task:
Unless
one
is
a
hack adapting
someone
else's
dictionary, lexicography
is
hard
work;
th e
conscientious exicographer,
f
he has a passion
or
his
ubject, dds
to
th e strain
by
doing
more
than,
strictly,
he
needs
to
do,
not
so
much
because
he
wishes
to
perpetuate
a
supererogation
as because he must. We hear of th e compulsions of the creative writer -
th e poet and th e dramatist, th e novelist or th e short-story practitioner.
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EURALEX 2 0 0 2 PROCEEDINGS
Those
are
genuine compulsions;
the results
genuinely
creative. Yet
the
true
scholar
also
has
his
compulsions:
and his
results
may,
n
a
different
mode,
be
almost
as
creative
as
those ofother
wielders
ofwords.
Crystal 1980 ]
The ditors
f
th e
ew
dictionary
are
attempting o maintain
he pirit
and
ssence f
Partridge's
original
commentaries,
adjusting
the
one
where
necessary to
embrace
the ull
range
of
new material. Partridge was, after
all,
a
man
of his
ime,
and
his
occasionally
shows through
in
his
preferences
and
prejudices.
A s
Jonathon
Green
[1999]
points
out:
The language ofthe
sturdy
beggars ofthe 16th century or the rakes
and
whores
ofthe
18 th
offers
no
difficulties;
hat
of
modern youth
seems
o engender something of a
'Disgusted
ofTonbridge'
treatment.
W h a t
will
be
etained
ro m
h is
emark ,
however,
s
Partridge's diligent
and
air-minded
approach to
th e
anguage
of
the
socially marginalized, which
the
editors
of
New
Partridge
will seek to
extend
into
the
present
day.
Working
m e t h o d s
Every entry will
be
either compiled
or
reviewed
by
at
least
one
ofthe
two
principal
editors,
Terry
Victor
(UK)
and
Tom
Dalzell
(US) . For
material
beyond
the
UK
and the U S,
a
number
of
'worldwide contributors'
have
been
engaged;
the latest
addition
to
the
team
is
a
specialist
in
anadian
nglish.
ebsite
as
ecently
om e
nline
www.partridge-slang.com)
which,
am ong
other
things,
is
being
used
to
solicit
voluntary
contributions from
the general
public
(which
are
being
subjected
to
rigorous
review
by the
principal
editors) .
The first stage
ofthe
project involves collecting and
compiling
the
new
material
and storing
the
entries in
an online
database. The database
is
implemented
as
a
collection
of
XML files,
with each
file
corresponding to
an
ndividual
sense
of
a headword.
A
sample
XML
file
s
shown n Appendix 2.
A
user-friendly nterface s provided
see
Appendix 3 )
o
hat the
editors
do not have to engage
directly
with
the
XM L
coding.
The user nterface has
been
integrated
with a
dedicated
browser
so
that the editors
can
inspect
the
database online, select
files
or
downloading,
work
on
hem
n
he user nterface, hen
upload
hem back
o
he
database.
The
nterface also allows or a triage' ys tem,
e.
pre-selecting
or
excluding)
entr ies
or nclusion n
any of
th e
proposed
works
to
be
extracted ro m
the database. The
browser ncorporates ulletin oard,
r
orum, esigned
or ase
f
communication
between he rincipal ditors, he orldwide ontributors, nd he ditorial eam t
Routledge.
The ne-file/one-sense orrespondence
s
dapted o he orking ethods
f
he
lexicographers. Rather
than proceeding alphabetically,
they
are
recording
and
nvestigating
slang
terms
as
they
crop
up in
the
course
ofasystematic programme ofreading and citation,
which
s
used
o
generate
an
nitial
headword
ist.
Thus,
ik e
he
original
Partridge,
New
Partridge
will
be drawn almost exclusively rom written or otherwise ecorded) ources .
While
the
value
offieldwork,
such
as
that conducted
by
David
Maurer [1940 , 1 9 5 4 , 1981 ] or
Tony
Thorne
[1999] ,
is
entirely
recognized,
the
associated
costs
would
in
this
case
have
been
prohibitive.
At
times
the editors
m ay be
concentrating on
a particular
subject
area - such
as
334
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REPORTS
O N
LEXICOGRAPHICAL
AN D LEXICOLOGICAL PROJECTS
drugs,
automobiles,
or military slang;
at
other
times
they may
be
working
through selected
fictional
or
non-fictional
texts
(which
might
include
movie
scripts,
novelizations,
and
song
lyrics).
mong
he
uthors
and
uteurs) eaturing
n
he
ibliographic
atabase
re
Armistead Maupin, Richard
Farina,
Quentin Tarantino, Naomi Klein, Alan Bleasdale, Guy
Ritchie,
and
Sacha
Baron-Cohen ( 'Ali
G').
Other
recent dictionaries
of
slang are being consulted
fo r
th e sake
of
completeness, but it
is
hoped
that
every
item
included
in New
Partridge
can be
attested
with
reference to
at least
one
primary source.
Each
item as it
occurs
is cross-checked against
DSUE8,
to
see whether
there
s
an
existing
entry
that
is
uitable
to
be
carried
over to
th e
new edition.
After
this
initial pass, each entry from
DSUE8
that
has not been included so fa r will be reviewed and
considered
fo r
inclusion
in
New
Partridge.
Once the database
s
more or less
complete,
urther editorial passes will be
necessary
n
order
to
lean up
he
database - there
s
bound
o
be a certain
amount
of
duplication,
misplaced
entries,
etc - an d then
to
consolidate th e
individual
files into (often multi-sense)
dictionary entries.
Concluding
remarks
Slang is inherently short-lived
and
ephemeral; most of
the slang collected by Partridge has
not
been heard since
World
W ar
II,
and
most
ofthe
slang
first heard
since World II
was
not
recorded
by
Partridge. This
makes
th e enterprise
of
updating
a
slang dictionary somewhat
paradoxical;
the
time
and
effort
needed
to
sift
through an
ever-growing
body
ofnew
material
(which itselfwill need to
be
updated again
before many
years have
passed) seems in inverse
proportion
o
he
nature
of
th e
material
under tudy. artridge himself recognized he
strenuous
and tiring
nature
ofthe
undertaking:
I
should
like
to
glance
at
a rather
special sort
oflexicography,
a
sort admittedly
ancillary
an d minor: hat
n
which
one s
nvited
o
bring
up
o date dictionary
written
by
someone
else;
someone
either dead or
no
longer
able
to
attempt
th e work. sa y invited
to
bring up
to date ,
because no
lexicographer, however
experienced
or however fatuous,
would,
ofhimself,
propose
to
engage
in
labour
so
ungrateful.
[Partridge
1963,
p.78]
Ancillary
and
minor
though it m ay
be, 'to write
-
not
merely
to compile' such
a
dictionary
is
a abour which he present
ditors
re
honoured
to
undertake,
f
it
means
being
ble o
celebrate th e
achievements ofEric
Partridge, an d give
him
fresh
voice
in
the 21
st
century.
References
[Crystal
1980]
Crystal,
D.
(ed.)
1980.
Eric Partridge in his own
words,
André
Deutsch,
London.
[Farmer & Henley
903]
Farmer, J . S . & W. E. Henley,
903. Slang
and its
Analogues
past and
present, London.
[Green
1999]
Green,
J.,
1999.
Private
correspondence
with
Routledge
publishers.
[Maurer
1940]
Maurer,
D.,
1940.
The
bigcon, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis.
335
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.EURALEX 2002
PROCEEDINGS
Pvlaurer
1954]
Maurer, D ., 1954.
Narcotics
andnarcotic
addiction,
Charles
C.
Thomas, Springfield,
Illinois.
PvIaurer
981]
aurer, D .,
981. Language ofthe
nderworld,
niversity
ress of
Kentucky,
Lexington.
Partridge 1937] Partridge, E., 1937.
Dictionary
f
lang
nd
nconventional nglish,
G. Routledge
&
Sons, London.
P>artridge
1963]
Partridge,
E.,
1963.
The gentle art oflexicography, André Deutsch, London.
Partr idge
984] Partridge, E. with P. Beale)
984.
A
Dictionary
ofSlang
and
Unconventional
English,
8
th
edition,
Routledge
& Kegan
Paul,
London,
rihorne 1997] Thorne, T., 1997.
Dictionary
ofcontemporary slang,
Bloomsbury,
London.
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REPORTS
ON
LEXICOGRAPHICAL
A N D LEXICOLOGICAL
PROJECTS
Appendix Sample
draft
entries
from
the
database
adbusting
oun
in nticorporate ctivism, the ct f
ubverting
rand
advertising,
usually
y
arody
r
mockery
[ Hebelievesthatadbustingwill
eventuaUy
spark
a
paradigm shift in
public
consciousness.'
Naomi
Klein,
No
Logo,
p.286.
2001.]
Canada, since late
980s
-core suffix
sed n ombination with tyle o reate ock r ip-hop
music
enre
[On
the
hardcore
model.
Spook-core punks
A FI have just inked
a
deal
with DreamWorks[.]'
Rock Sound,
p.ll.
March 2002. '[T]he briefly
popular
[in 2001]
horror-
core
rap genre.' The
Source,
p.l21. March 2002.]
Jack
traw
oun marijuana
[
ackStrawMP,UKHomeSecretaryl997-2001,
responsible
for strengthening
anti-drug
legislation,
was
embarrassed
when
his
son
was
busted
for
marijuana.
'SOMETHING POSITIVE MUST COME
OU T
OF THE S A G A OF
JACK
STRAW
A N D HIS SON
WILLIAM'S I N V O L V E M E N T
WITH DRUGS' Voice ofthe People' in
The
People
newspaper, 4th
January 1998. Within days the rhyming slang Jack Straw, draw
(marijuana)
had been added to
the lexicon.] U K. Since 1998
juke erb
o ance
n
oisterous
ashion [It
is
theorized
that
the
word,
today
only recognized in the formation
juke ox,
was derived from the African
Wolof ,
Banut,
or
Bambara languages.
The
term spread
through
southern blacks from
the
GuUah,
and then
into wider slang
usage, although with a
distinctly southern flavour:
'Now the
big black
guy
said
something,
grinning,
and the
whores
laughed
and
started
juking
around,
feeUng
something about
to
happen.' Elmore
Leonard,
SuHtch,
1978.] U S 1930s
postal
a
jective
xtremely ngry,
furious o
he
oint f iolence
[From
a
series
of
highly
pubhcised
workplace shootings by
frustrated
and furious
employees
of
the
US
Postal Service. Like
Josh
thinking I
was mean
was
making
me
postaL'
Clueless, 1995.
'Ifanother one ofthese chairs hits me
in
the
nuts,
I'm gonna
go
postaL'
Austin Powers: The
Spy
Who Shagged
Me, 1999.]
U S
337
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EURALEX
2 2
PROCEEDINGS
ppen ix
:
X
representation
of
a
dictionary
f i l e
4 05
adbusting
no
no
in
anticorporate
activism,
the
act
of
subverting
brand
advertising,
usually
by
parody
or
mockery,
Naomi Klein
Book
No Logo
286
2001
He
believes that adbusting
will
eventually
spark
2paradigm
shift in public
conciousness.
TV
ca
noun
Counterculture
late 1980ssrarr;
New
Entry
yes
no
yes
yes
no
no
no
yes
no
no
no
no
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REPORTS
ON LEXICOGRAPHICAL AN D LEXICOLOGICAL PROJECTS
Appendix
3 :
Screen
shots
ofthe
user
interface
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EURALEX 2 0 0 2 PROCEEDINGS
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