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slang
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Walpole, Horace
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slang summary
Quizzes
YOLO "You Only Live Once" written in bright colors and repeated on a purple background (acronym, slang)
Slang Through the Ages Vocabulary Quiz
A young boy dressed in retro 1980s attire, with bow tie and eyeglasses, wears a light bulb idea invention machine to help him think of the next big idea. (nerd, nerdy, thinker) SEE CONTENT NOTES.
Are You An Idiom Savant? Quiz
Hand with pencil writing on page. (handwriting; write)
Word Nerd Quiz
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Student girl writing formulas on transparent wall
The Bizarre Origins of the Words Nerd and Geek
Happy, smiling, flying pig
7 Everyday English Idioms and Where They Come From
Chinese pictograph, calligraphy tablet of Huang Tingjian, a famous calligrapher in Ancient Song Dynasty. The background of Chinese cultural elements.
The World’s 5 Most Commonly Used Writing Systems
Portion of the Aleppo Codex, a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible written in the Hebrew language in the 10th century CE; in the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Why Do Languages Die?
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The Jeff Koons tulips sculputure outside the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao, Spain, Basque Country.
What’s the Difference Between Modern and Contemporary Art?
Colorful winter sunset
What's the Difference Between a Solstice and an Equinox?
Stylish light blue jeans on wooden background, closeup of inset pocket
Why Do Jeans Have That Tiny Pocket?
Ice Sledge Hockey, Hockey Canada Cup, USA (left) vs Canada, 2009. UBC Thunderbird Arena, Vancouver, BC, competition site for Olympic ice hockey and Paralympic ice sledge hockey. Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Vancouver Olympics
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Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and autodidact.
6 Interesting Facts about Srinivasa Ramanujan
Four year old boy with grandfather and father lighting Hanukkah menorah. Photo taken on: December 21st, 2009
Which Is Correct: Hanukkah or Chanukah?
Hemp (Cannabis sativa).
9 Mind-Altering Plants
Walpole, Horace
Walpole, Horace Horace Walpole, detail of an oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757; in the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England.

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Written by
D.W. Maurer
Professor of Linguistics, University of Louisville, Kentucky. Author of Whiz-Mob: A Correlation of the Argot of Professional Pick-Pockets with Their Behavior Patterns and numerous articles and papers...
D.W. Maurer
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Related Topics:
language
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argot
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slang, unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way. It is flippant, irreverent, indecorous; it may be indecent or obscene. Its colourful metaphors are generally directed at respectability, and it is this succinct, sometimes witty, frequently impertinent social criticism that gives slang its characteristic flavour. Slang, then, includes not just words but words used in a special way in a certain social context. The origin of the word slang itself is obscure; it first appeared in print around 1800, applied to the speech of disreputable and criminal classes in London. The term, ...(100 of 2672 words)

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