Slang

Slang, used generally to denote a method of speaking in which either artificial words are used to denote ordinary objects, or in which words are employed in other than their ordinary senses. Under the former of these heads may be included tbe patter of gipsies and vagrants, thieves' Latin, and the cant, as it is called, by which many try to conceal their meaning from the uninitiated. The true Gipsy, i.e. Romany, is not slang but a distinct Eastern dialect, though it is much corrupted, and many slang words have been introduced into Romany, while many Romany words have been introduced into slang. Many slang words, again, are Old English, or Norse, or Celtic. The word is said to mean, by derivation, secret language. Every class of society has its slang in the second sense of the word - that is, uses in speech, either from affectation, or with a deliberate intention to produce an effect ludicrous or otherwise, a language that it would not use in oratory or in serious writing. Slang is often merely metaphor; for instance, when a Winchester boy speaks of "Moab" for the washing-place, he is using a metaphor arising from a mistaken conception of a Scriptural expression. Slang dictionaries have been compiled, and are of interest to the philologist.