As conjunctivitis and a bewildering array of other eye diseases plague Dabbler Towers, Mr Slang considers the peepers... The five senses do not bulk overlarge in slang. Poets like them and prate accordingly; slang, being of a harder edge, prefers less subtlety. Compared to the vast lists pertaining to matters sexual, ... Read More...
Language
Slang doesn't really do optimism, but as a one-off special to mark the nation's temporary mood of joy, here's Mr Slang's Alphabet of Admirability... I have eschewed what I term the O-word, but it is over now and I am emerging – decrepitude permitting – from behind my canapé, which is, ... Read More...
This week, a slang lexicographer's delight: the autobiography of a 19th century villain that contains a goldmine of criminal language... Like its standard, literary equivalent, the literature of slang has its canon and its classics. I have mentioned some of the greats – Taylor the Water Poet, George Ade, Surtees, Wodehouse ... Read More...
Slang loves sport, but Mr Slang does not. As he prepares to flee the Olympic-blighted capital, Jonathon fires a parting shot... ‘The Country Squire New Mounted’ The Country Squire to London came, And left behind his dogs and game; Yet finer sport he has in view, And hunts the hare and coney too. T. Rowlandson Pretty ... Read More...
Following Rio Ferdinand's Twitter troubles, Mr Slang examines the language of supposed race-betrayal... Choc-ice. Haven’t touched one since 1989 myself. Forty-one that very day, as it happened, and, hold on Mr G, just want to check your results. Black forest gateau, tiramisu, death by chocolate...the sweet trolley is as off-limits as ... Read More...
Arrogance, duplicitousness, treachery, sexual corruption and the tip-toeing gait of the flamenco dancer - Jonathon Green continues his series on English linguistic xenophobia with a visit to Spain... Sport being a locked room for which I have not the slightest interest in obtaining a key, my only comment vis-à-vis a recent ... Read More...
His soldier Tommy is one of the great English archetypes. But did Kipling invent or merely popularise him? Mr Slang investigates... Kipling, by allusion, has cropped up regularly in these posts. Enough of the oily rags. It is time for the engineer. Yet Kipling is not at first sight a particularly ‘slangy’ ... Read More...
From dark tourism to Dixieland jazz, Jonathon takes us on a trip to the slang's heart of darkness... About ten years ago I went to Auschwitz. This was Auschwitz II, with its iconic ex-Austrian barracks and the that final run of railway tracks, connecting backwards, for this was among the reasons ... Read More...
Slang is no republican, finds Jonathon Green, but neither does it bend the knee... Sixty years ago it was happening miles away in Treetops which was in Kenya and if the Queen remembers hearing that the rest of her life had just been realigned on new and seemingly infinite rails then ... Read More...
This week Mr Slang discusses family values... I have noticed, may I assume that I am not alone, a new linguistic abomination that must now be listed among the many repellent inventions that have come with the Olympics. For this neologism we can presumably thank the PR company that coined the ... Read More...