News

« Headlines

Slanging match for Chambers

26.10.07 Tom Tivnan

Edinburgh-based reference specialists Chambers Harrap Publishers has signed up one of Britain's leading lexicographers to produce two definitive dictionaries of slang. Jonathan Green, who wrote Cassell's Dictionary of Slang in 1998, will produce a single-volume trade edition and a multi-volume academic title which draws on his decades of research.

Patrick White, Chambers m.d. and publisher, acquired world print and electronic rights from Julian Alexander at LAW for "a large sum for Chambers."

The multi-volume title is aimed at academics and language specialists and Chambers says it will be the "most comprehensive and authoritative lexicographical study of English slang ever published."It is drawn from Green's database of over 100,000 English slang words and phrases from the last 500 years.

The database, which continues to expand in response to slang's ever-developing vocabulary, will also form the basis of an online edition.

Green will use the database to develop the trade title, The Chamber's Dictionary of Slang. A fully revised edition of the Cassell work, it promises to cover "every aspect of slang's seedy underworld.”

White said he was delighted Green had chosen Chambers. He added: "In particular, we believe that the online potential for the vast database is huge."

The trade version will be released in October 2008, and the academic title follows in 2009.

tom tivnan Rights deal Chambers

See Also