Highbrow Dictionary? “Green’s Dictionary of Slang”

TIME Magazine introduces a new book.  “Lowbrow language gets a highbrow dictionary.”  I think you will find this intriguing.  A quote:  “A  slang dictionary is many ways counterintuitive–or one might say, a bit bonkers.   Slang by nature is cool, and dictionaries are uncool… But the strange marriage of academia and irreverance is what makes Jonathon Green’s monster work.”  The work is in three volumes, costing $450.  It took 17 years to collect and edit; 110,000 words and phrases and it is reported to be the most complete dictionary of English slang ever published.  Example: p.h.d. phr. (1935) a warning to a woman that her slip is showing, as in “petticoat hanging down”.  A whole new language to learn (ha, ha). My observation!  I don’t have time for this; time for bed!