SLANG U. compiled by Pamela Munro...

SLANG U. compiled by Pamela Munro (Harmony: $10, illustrated). Pamela Munro’s entertaining dictionary of contemporary college slang grew out of a seminar she conducted at UCLA on unconventional English usage. Munro begins with the generally accepted criterion that slang is “language whose use serves to mark the user as a part of a distinct social group.” Like “The Annotated Mother Goose,” this book offers the surreptitious pleasure of discovering familiar idioms in a formal, academic setting. Not surprisingly, many of these expressions relate to drinking ( throg, chug, hammer ) and its effects, eating ( mac, scarf, scoob ) and euphemisms for sexual organs and activities (e.g., describing someone as a two bagger ) . It’s interesting to observe the effect that Black English, Yiddish, film and other specialized vocabularies have had on modern slang, although some expressions turn out to be much older than people realize: mooch can be traced back to the mid-16th Century. This off-the-wall compendium is essential for deciphering conversations overheard in lines for movies in Westwood.