Bloomsbury Dictionary of Rhyming Slangs

Terry Victor is co-editor (with Tom Dalzell) of the first and revised second editions of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English and the Concise NPDSUE, Sex Slang and Vice Slang. He is author of the chapter Gestural Slang in Global English Slang: Methodologies and Perspectives. Antonio Lillo is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Alicante, Spain and author of Transcribing English: The Nuts and Bolts of Phonemic Transcription (Comares, 2009) and co-author of Grammar in Gobbets (AguaClara, 2002; 2nd ed. 2011). He has also published numerous articles on word-play and varieties of rhyming slang in such journals as English Studies, English Today, English World-Wide, Journal of English Linguistics and Scottish Language.

• 1. Introduction. An introductory essay on the history, spread and development of rhyming slang around the Anglophone world. 2. Body of the dictionary (microstructure). Each entry will feature the following: (i) Headword and variants. (ii) Part of speech. (iii) Geographical label(s). (iv) Definition (the rhyme word, if appropriate, is part of the definition; never use a word that itself needs looking up elsewhere and treat all slang and unconventional English as unknown). (v) A gloss which (a) may enlarge upon the significance and social context of the headword; and (b) may enlarge upon the target word with which the headword rhymes. Where relevant (and where known), the gloss will include a commentary pointing to the term's origin and usage, as well as a short consideration of the social circumstance or, and with regard to, the local significance of dialect and accented speech. (vi) The gloss or commentary will be supported by at least one written or oral citation exemplifying the word's usage.