This history of the development of slang is intended as an enjoyable guide for the writer, the student of words, the crossword-puzzle addict and the compulsive browser. A slang term may begin life with one meaning and then gradually take on another; and new terms are constantly emerging, while others disappear. The book tackles its subject theme by theme, taking Standard English words such as money, sex and alcohol, and tracing the development of their slang equivalents over the past 500 years.