The Bottom Line
A word of caution. This is a book of slang and slang can be impudent. In Dunn's own words, "...most of the lingo in this book has never appeared in print before. If it's unfamiliar, that's the whole point of discovering it here."
See the "Description" section for a few of my favorite examples.
Pros
- An informative collection of slang from medical workers to movie ushers
- Highly entertaining terms will leave you chuckling
- An extensive collection that has been thoroughly researched
Cons
- Slang can be impudent - some may find certain terms offensive
Description
- Technicolor burp medical workers - n - Vomit.
- Bungee jumper medical workers - n - A patient who pulls on his catheter tube.
- Sidewalk soufflé medical workers - n - A person who has fallen from a building.
- Motorized rice garbage collectors - n - Maggots.
- Food simulator airline pilots - n - An airport vending machine.
- Fried egg golfers - n - A ball that lands in a sand trap, making a round depression.
- Alice golfers - v - Hit a putt too softly to reach the hole.
- Snowman golfers - n - A score of eight on a hole.
- Crosswordese cruciverbalists - n - Obscure, trite or hackneyed words that have convenient letter patterns.
- Flash cruciverbalists - n - An easy answer.
Guide Review - Idiom Savant - Slang as it is Slung - Book Review
Jerry Dunn in the introduction to 'Idiom Savant', says, "The exuberance that leads human beings to create and enjoy new language is part of our nature. Since lingo is pithy and often funny, it adds freshness and zest to life."
People from all walks of life and across all occupations develop a terminology that allows them to quickly and succinctly express themselves with a minimum of effort and an economy of words. These expressions, frequently humorous and sometimes derogatory, become so ingrained in the language that they often displace the original or 'proper' terms. Military personnel no longer requisition a General Purpose Vehicle or GPV. That term has been replaced by 'Jeep', a corruption of G.P.
Slang is the poetry of the people. It's their weapon and their defense. It takes common language and twists, turns and hammers the dry terminology into expressions which can poke fun at the humorless or deflate the arrogant. It can make the mundane exciting and the embarrassing expressible -'see a man about a horse'. Ordinary words take on extraordinary roles when properly combined. Take 'cat' and 'house'. Separately, ho-hum but together, a 'cathouse'. That's like taking an elastic band and a clothespin, two common items, and fashioning a zip gun for launching spitballs.
Jerry Dunn has written books for the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution, and has won three Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers.
