Dictionary of Contemporary Slang - Tapa dura

'One of the most infuriatingly addictive dictionaries ever produced... Catalogues the vast majority of the improper, vulgar, unacceptable, dubious and generally disreputable words in use in Britain' Evening Standard 'Thorne's speculations are wonderfully informative... [He is the] worthy successor to the great slang-inspector Eric Partridge.' Observer 'This book is the dog's bollocks' Big Issue 'More than 6,000 entries for the latest lingo to enhance your street cred' The Times

In this new edition of the highly acclaimed and bestselling Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, language and culture expert Tony Thorne explores the teeming and ever-changing underworld of the English language, bringing back intriguing examples of eccentricity, irreverence and anonymous wit from the linguistic front-line. The author has carried out original research among slang users and connoisseurs and has trawled all manner of written sources. The result is a definitive and indispensable guide, containing more than 6,000 expressions and over 15,000 definitions from the English-speaking world. As well as examples from Britain, there are thousands of American, Australian, South African and Jamaican slang terms. So if your banter is faded and your vocabulary antwacky, use this book and your cha-chas will think you're animal (or maybe just a few fries short of a happy meal). The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang describes racy and unorthodox words and phrases in use from the 1950s to the present day. Fully revised and expanded, with lively examples of usage throughout, this up-to-the-minute reference work paints a vivid picture of our cultural and social preoccupations. In case you wonder what that extraordinary sentence means, banter is conversation, faded means inferior or tedious, and antwacky is used in NW England to describe something that is out-of-date. Your cha-chas are your peers, and animal means excellent or exciting. And, as you may have guessed, if you're a few fries short of a happy meal you're not quite sane.