Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang
In this new edition of the highly acclaimed and bestselling Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, Tony Thorne explores the teeming and ever-changing underworld of English, 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 slang 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 across the English-speaking world. As well as examples from Britain, there are thousands of American, Australian, South African and Jamaican slang terms. So, if you have ever wondered who or what an oof is, where you would expect to find a gurgler, what you would do if someone caned your biffs, and just why you would need a bozo-filter, then this book is your guide.
The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang describes racy and unorthodox words and phrases in use from the 1950s to the new millennium. 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.
(And if you wondered what those extraordinary terms mean, an oof is an attractive woman, a gurgler is a toilet in Australia, cane is British youth-slang for devour or cadge and biffs are cigarettes, while a bozo-filter is computer slang for a device that screens out unwanted electronic messages.)

Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
From the publishers of the perennially best-selling Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable comes a phrase and fable dictionary for the 21st century. With its unique blend of word and phrase etymology, cultural allusion and general knowledge, and its predilection for the esoteric and the unexpected, Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable offers a richly diverse and entertaining exploration of the linguistic and cultural landscape of the modern world. It runs the whole gamut of contemporary culture, from American Psycho to Dadaism and G and T to Lara Croft.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Millennium Edition
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is one of the world's best-loved reference books. First published in 1870, this treasury of 'words that have a tale to tell' has established itself as one of the great reference classics - the first port of call for tens of thousands of terms, phrases and proper names, and a fund of fascinating, unusual and out-of-the-way information. For the Millennium Edition of Brewer's the entire existing text has been revised and updated and over 1000 new articles added, which include: the full monty, do one's head in and Montezuma's revenge.

Dictionary of Eponyms, Manser
Aphrodisiacs, atlas, biro, boycott, cardigan, juggernaut, panic, sandwich, stetson and wellingtons all have one thing in common: they are eponyms - words derived from the names of real, fictional, mythical or spurious characters. There are hundreds of eponyms in everyday use in English today and study of them yields a fascinating insight into the rich heritage of the world's most popular language and its development.

Rawson's Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk
In his Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk, Hugh Rawson explains, in clear language, what it means when we talk of an unusual occurrence, a crew transfer container, or Montezuma's revenge. If you have ever been baffled by the expression culturally deprived, or want to know where the phrase deep-six comes from, then this book will certainly be of service.

Rawson's Wicked Words
v The author of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk here presents us with the other side of the coin, Wicked Words, in which he pulls no punches in bringing us to the very cliff-edge of the English language. He covers everything from fart to flibbertigibbit, while always keeping careful watch for flimflam.
Hugh Rawson combines a sound history of language with countless tales - find out what became of William Colyngburne for his use of the word hog, or the Presidential campaigner that branded his competitor a liar.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms
The cat will never have your tongue once you have The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms - the largest collection of idioms and popular phrases available today. Its main fare is idioms - groups of two or more words that taken together mean something different from the literal meaning of the individual words.
Each entry is defined and has an example sentence showing the idiom used in context. Most entries offer an explanation of the idiom's literal meaning or origin and include information about its first appearance in English.
Produced in consultation with the editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, this book is a storehouse of fascinating and useful information.

The Bloomsbury Good Word Guide
This updated and revised edition of the Good Word Guide combines clear, accessible information with practical guidance and an easy-to-use approach.
With new words being introduced at a remarkable rate, areas of doubt and confusion are likely to arise. The Good Word Guide details the countless changes happening in the English language, and special attention is given to particular problems - spelling

The Browser's Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases
This handy, practical and browsable A-to-Z reference tells you all you need to know to understand, pronounce and appreciate the nearly 2,000 foreign words and phrases commonly used by speakers and writers of English. The Browser's Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases covers a wide variety of subject areas and includes loan-words from more than sixty languages around the world, such as:
• Latin (desideratum)
• German (gestalt)
• Hebrew (shibboleth)
• Persian (tambura)
The Browser's Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases is sure to become a favourite reference for anyone with an interest in words and language.

The Devil's Dictionary
This is the original text of the Devil's Dictionary, published in 1911. The book was written over twenty-five years by Ambrose Bierce, an American journalist who fought in the American Civil War. Friend and rival of Mark Twain, Bierce peppers his definitions with liberal amounts of sarcasm and irony. He disappeared in Mexico in 1914.
Following is Bierce's original preface:
Author's Preface
The Devil's Dictionary was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in covers with the title The Cynic's Word Book, a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve. To quote the publishers of the present work:
"This more reverent title had previously been forced upon him by the religious scruples of the last newspaper in which a part of the work had appeared, with the natural consequence that when it came out in covers the country already had been flooded by its imitators with a score of 'cynic' books -- The Cynic's This, The Cynic's That, and The Cynic's t'Other. Most of these books were merely stupid, though some of them added the distinction of silliness. Among them, they brought the word 'cynic' into disfavor so deep that any book bearing it was discredited in advance of publication."
Meantime, too, some of the enterprising humorists of the country had helped themselves to such parts of the work as served their needs, and many of its definitions, anecdotes, phrases and so forth, had become more or less current in popular speech. This explanation is made, not with any pride of priority in trifles, but in simple denial of possible charges of plagiarism, which is no trifle. In merely resuming his own the author hopes to be held guiltless by those to whom the work is addressed -- enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to sentiment, wit to humor and clean English to slang.
A conspicuous, and it is hope not unpleasant, feature of the book is its abundant illustrative quotations from eminent poets, chief of whom is that learned and ingenius cleric, Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J., whose lines bear his initials. To Father Jape's kindly encouragement and assistance the author of the prose text is greatly indebted.
A.B.

The Penguin Rhyming Dictionary
Anyone who writes verse, whether lyric poet, songwriter or composer of limericks or jingles, will find The Penguin Rhyming Dictionary an indispensable reference companion. Clearly arranged and easy to use, it offers an astonishingly wide range of suggestions for rhyming words, from the common and everyday to the more difficult and obscure.
Unlike many of its predecessors it is not merely organized according to the spelling of words but is based on phonetic principles. Hence, rhymes such as trite, indict, and Fahrenheit, can be found together in the one group whereas words such as bough, cough and rough are not falsely forced together.
Key attractions of this reference work include:
• Contains lists of rhymes for well over 40,000 words
• Distinguishes between close rhymes and less exact ones
• Offers lucid, concise explanations of unusual words