Jonathon Green reviews a new edition of a groundbreaking work of Anglo-Indian lexicography... Hobson Jobson A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive was published in 1886. Its name comes from an Englished pronunciation of ‘Ya Hassan! Ya Hossein!’ as cried at ... Read More...
Language
He was the bard of Chicago and he tried to steal Simone de Beauvoir from Satre... Mr Slang introduces the man behind The Man with the Golden Arm... As Hamlet put it, look here upon this picture. And see before you, dare I attest, a proper writer: specs, work-shirt, hair a little ... Read More...
Italy has given the world delicious food, beautiful people and boring football. But what has it gifted to slang? Jonathon Green investigates... I have been in Italy enjoying the kindness of friends. I, or such parts as were exposed, am now a pleasing light brown, patched pallid[1] only where shaded by ... Read More...
From Nazi Germany to 9/11, Jonathon Green explains why true believers don't use slang... ‘Before [the Al Qaeda training camp] they were joking around and using slang. After the camp the guys were talking jihad, praying and quoting the Koran.’ British jihadist, quoted in Jason Burke The 9/11 Wars (2011) Humankind, as ... Read More...
Jonathon Green celebrates the golden age of hardboiled, noir US sports journalism... It’s a funny thing about people. People will hate a guy all his life for what he is, but the minute he dies for it they make him out a hero and they go around saying that maybe he ... Read More...
The 'swivel-eyed loons' are back! But have you ever wondered where that fine old description of shire Tories comes from? Allow Mr Slang to enlighten you... My apologies to those who find such things of world-shattering, albeit momentary import, but I am at a loss to see quite where we are ... Read More...
If you're looking for a double entendre, Mr Slang is just the man to give you one... Those who, gazing at last week’s cab-referrent illustration, could tear their eyes from what Joyce, a connoisseur of such things, would have termed Judy Geeson’s ‘frillies’, would have noticed the strapline: ‘He gets more ... Read More...
Gantville cowboys, Butterboys and Sandy McNabs - Jonathon takes a ride through the world of taxi jargon (but doesn't, of course, go sarf of the river)... I am in a cab. The cabbie asks what lies in store. I explain that he is taking me home, which in my case is ... Read More...
Introducing the philosophising cab driver seen by the British wartime establishment as 'the ideal representative of the working man', and sent off on propaganda tours... The DNB fails to take note and he exists in Wikipedia merely among the listings of those who appeared on Desert Island Discs (1943, playlist includes: ... Read More...
I think every English teacher I ever had must have mentioned this book at some point, but I had never got round to finding out anything more about it, until now... Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter "E" is a novel written in 1939 by Ernest ... Read More...
