60's Slang
1960's Slang Is "Slang" the past tense of "Sling"?

This Slang Dictionary was written 30 odd years ago by Miss. Cone's 1964-65 9th Grade English Class. Dan McNeill was a part of that project and has generously offered it here for our enjoyment. Thanks Dan

INTRODUCTION

In this small dictionary we have attempted to collect and explain all of the major and minor slang words and phrases used at Hawthorne High School. This project was the culminating one in a study of the history of the English language and a consideration of the various approaches to compiling a dictionary. Slang is, in a way, a language by itself. A study of it reveals principles basic to all languages, including standard English. The fact that languages are constantly changing is particularly obvious when one considers slang. The slang of Spring 1965 is not the same as the slang of any other season of any other year. Also, the fact that there are regional variations in any language is made clear by a study of slang. H.H.S. slang is greatly influenced by surfers and surfing, a factor probably not as important in other parts of this country. All languages are primarily oral, and slang is almost entirely so. As a result of this, we had many problems with the spelling of entries. Since the words are so seldom written, we had no standard to go by. In compiling this dictionary, we followed a procedure similar to that used by contemporary professional dictionary makers. First of all, each of us kept his eyes and ears open to anything that would be the written and spoken slang of Hawthorne. Then we brought the words back to our classroom. We divided the class into small groups and then began to dissect each word. We investigated it to discover its part of speech, meaning, and usage. For each entry, we have given the part of speech unless it is a phrase, one or more definitions, examples of use in a sentence (give in quotation marks), and slang synonyms in parentheses).

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