First published in 1949 (this edition in 1968), this book is a dictionary of the past, exploring the language of the criminal and near-criminal worlds. It includes entries from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, as well as from Britain and America and offers a fascinating and unique study of language. The book provides an invaluable insight into social history, with the British vocabulary dating back to the 16th century and the American to the late 18th century. Each entry comes complete with the approximate date of origin, the etymology for each word, and a note of the milieu in which the expression arose.

For over a century the ten-volume Dictionary of the Bible has been the definitive reference. "It is a Dictionary of the Old and New Testaments, together with the Old Testament Apocrypha, according to the Authorized and Revised English Versions, and with constant reference to the original tongues. ... Articles have been written on the names of all Persons and Places, on the Antiquities and Archaeology of the Bible, on its Ethnology, Geology, and Natural History, on Biblical Theology and Ethic, and even on the obsolete or archaic words occurring in the English Versions." James Hastings (1852-1922) was a distinguished scholar and pastor. He was founder and editor of the Expository Times and is also well known for editing the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, the Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, and the Dictionary of the Apostolic Church.

The definitive work on the subject, this Dictionary - available again in its eighth edition - gives a full account of slang and unconventional English over four centuries and will entertain and inform all language-lovers.