Overview
Main description
If you'd rather be schmooping or gurgitating, then slangmeister Grant Barrett has the dictionary for you. ``The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English" (McGraw-Hill, $14.95) collects hundreds of ``undocumented and underdocumented" words like the ones in his subtitle: ``A Crunk Omnibus for Thrillionaires and Bampots for the Ecozoic Age." Barrett's entries are not mere barroom fancies, but terms you can find in print and on the Internet, scrabbling for a foothold in the mainstream lexicon. Will Trashcanistan, ``any poor Middle Eastern country or Central Asian republic," hang around in the slang lexicon? Will ridonkulous follow humongous into general usage? Barrett, who also tracks such usage on his website, Double-Tongued Word Wrester, (www.doubletongued.org), will be among the first to know.
Author comments
Grant Barrett is a lexicographer and project editor for the Historical Dictionary of American Slang for Oxford University Press. He is the founder and editor of the Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary (doubletongued.org), a popular website that tracks new words from the fringes of English.
Back cover copy
This is not your paleoconservative's dictionary.
The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English is a collection of cutting-edge words used around the English-speaking world. From Nollywood to Califunny and Corrupticut to Trashcanistan, these words are hot off the street and the Internet, and they are definitely not in Webster's. Inside you'll learn more than 750 new words, their meanings, and how they became part of the English lexicon.
Bangalored adj. having been relocated to India; having lost business or employment due to such a relocation
Bugs Bunny changeup n. in baseball, a slow pitch disguised as a fast ball that seems to stop in front of the plate
cuff and stuff v. to (physically) place someone under arrest
fundagelical n. a fundamentalist or evangelical Christian
hillbilly armor n. scavenged materials used by soldiers for improvised bullet-proofing and vehicle hardening, esp. in Iraq
I love me wall n. a public display of awards, certificates, plaques, and photographs with or from celebrities
Orange Curtain n. the characteristics, real or imagined, that differentiate Orange County from Los Angeles County and the rest of California
sleeve v. to decorate an arm with tattoos
swankienda n. a mansion or large house
unass v. to dismount or disembark
