Machine generated contents note: -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: Slang: A User's Manual -- 2. In the Beginning: The Prehistory -- 3. Lewd, Lousey Language: Beggars and Their Books -- 4. Crime and Punishment -- 5. Play's the Thing -- 6. The Sound of the City -- 7. Flash: This Sporting Life -- 8. Down Under -- 9. Sex in the City -- 10. Cockney Sparrers -- 11. America: Pioneers -- 12. Keeping Score: Nineteenth-century Slang Lexicography -- 13. Gayspeak -- 14. American Century -- 15. African-American Slang: The Flesh Made Word -- 16. Campus and Counter-Culture -- 17. War -- 18. Conclusion: As It Was in the Beginning -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgements -- Index.