Slang

Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language and sometimes creation of new words or importation of words from another language. Slang terms are often particular to a certain subculture, such as drug users, skaters, or musicians. Sometimes confused with jargon, the collection of vocabulary specific to a certain profession.

Slang is often used to discuss semi-tabu subjects, such as

• Drunkenness
• Sexual organs and activities
• [Recreational drugs]?

Historical examples of slang are the "thieves' cant" used by beggars and the underworld generally in previous centuries: a number of "canting" dictionaries were published.

Polari was an interesting mixture of Italian and Cockney back slang (i.e. common words pronounced as if spelled backwards e.g. 'ecaf' for face, which became 'eek' in Polari) . Polari was used in the [gay subculture]? in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming more widely known from its use by two camp characters, [Jules and Sandy]?, in [Round the Horne]?, a popular radio show.

Verlan is a French slang, that uses backwards words, similar in its methods to the cockney back slang. Louchebem is French butcher's slang, similar to Pig latin.

There is a huge amount of hacker (computer programmer) slang; see Jargon File.

Links:

• For British slang, see http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/
• For Australian slang, see http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/9740/slang.html
• For some Cockney rhyming slang, see http://www.bio.nrc.ca/cockney/process.html
• For an example of a canting dictionary, which incidentally illustrates the tendency for English to adopt and make respectable words that were originally coined by the criminal classes http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/dict/ .
• For more about Polari, see this page: http://members.aol.com/frij/