Jonathon Green

Jonathon Green (born 20 April 1948 in Kidderminster, Worcestershire) is a British lexicographer of slang and writer on the history of alternative cultures. Jonathon Green is often referred to as the English-speaking world’s leading lexicographer of slang^[1], and has even been described as 'The most-acclaimed British lexicographer since Johnson'^[2].

Contents 1 Life and career 2 Current work 3 References 4 Publications 5 External links 5.1 Interviews and Podcasts 5.2 Reviews

Life and career

Green was educated at Bedford School 1961-1965 and Brasenose College, Oxford 1966-1969.

Author, freelance journalist, broadcaster and lecturer, Green primarily works in the collection and analysis of slang. To this end, he has amassed a database, which – according to Green – holds around 125,000 slang words and phrases, underpinned by over 550,000 citations (examples of usage). It covers English-language slang since the 16th century and offers the vocabularies of the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Éire and the anglophone Caribbean. This database provides a resource for all his slang-related publications.

For Green, slang is as much a part of the greater English language as any other of its sub-sets such as dialect or technicalities. But unlike those, it opts for an actively oppositional role. With a conscious acknowledgement of the Counterculture of the 1960s (in which he played a part and of which he has written, see below) he has termed slang the ‘counter-language’ and more recently ‘the language that says “no”'.^[3] Born at the margins it has remained there, even if the secrecy that lay at the heart of older slang cannot resist the information flow of the modern world.

Current work

Green’s current work is focussed on Green's Dictionary of Slang (title TBC): a multi-volume slang dictionary which intends to trace, via examples and citations drawn from the last five centuries, the history of the slang vocabulary from the earliest use of every term. According to the publishers, Chambers Harrap, it is due to be published in 2010.

The single-volume Chambers Slang Dictionary (Chambers Harrap) was first published in 1998; a second edition appeared in October 2008. Getting Off at Gateshead: An A–Z of Filth (Quercus) was also published in October 2008.

He lives in London and Paris.

References

Publications

Language

Dictionaries and Related Publications

• Newspeak: A Dictionary of Jargon (1983)

• The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (1984, 1992, 1995)

• The Slang Thesaurus (1986, 1999)

• The A–Z of Nuclear Jargon (1986)

• The Dictionary of Jargon (1987 RKP)

• Neologisms: a dictionary of contemporary coinages (1991)

• Slang Down the Ages: the Historical Development of Slang (1993)

• Words Apart: the Language of Prejudice (1996)

• Chasing The Sun: Dictionary-Makers and the Dictionaries They Made (1996)

• Cassell Dictionary of Slang (1998, 2005)

• Big Book of Filth (1999)

• Big Book of Being Rude (2000)

• Big Book of Bodily Functions (2001)

• Talking Dirty: A Slang Phrasebook (2003)

Dictionaries of Quotations

• Famous Last Words (1979, 1997)

• Contemporary Dictionary of Quotations (1982)

• The Cynics’ Lexicon (1984)

• Cassell Dictionary of Insulting Quotations (1996 Cassell, p/b 1997)

Oral Histories

• Days In The Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961-–71 (1988)

• Them: Voices from the Immigrant Community in Contemporary Britain (1990)

• It: Sex Since the Sixties (1993)

Miscellaneous Publications

• The Encyclopedia of Censorship (1990)

• All Dressed Up: The Sixties and the Counterculture (1998)

• Cutting it Fine: Inside the Restaurant Business, with Andrew Parkinson (2000)

• Cannabis: A History (2002)

Contributor

• The Language Report, ed. Susie Dent (2005, 2006)

• Elsevier Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition: contributor, 'Anglophone Slang Lexicography'

• Dictionary of National Biography, revised edition: contributor, 'Eric Partridge', 'Sapper [H.C. McNeile]'

• Bloomsbury Good Word Guide (1988, 1990, 1994), contributing editor: Slang and Jargon entries

Consultant

• Oxford English Dictionary

External links

Interviews and Podcasts

• Jonathon Green on Meet the Author UK
• Interview in The Generalist
• If there are only thirteen dirty words, how come this book is so big? The Word podcast with Jonathon Green.

Reviews

• Wimping it, The Times Literary Supplement, 30 June 2006
• Getting off at Gateshead, By Jonathon Green, The Independent, 21 November 2008
• Fact and fun with the stars of geek heaven, The Independent, 28 November 2008