The introduction to Green's handsomely bound and competitively priced Chambers slang dictionary provides an overview of its author's lexicographical publications to date and a summary of the development that this volume represents. It discusses the origins and meanings of the word slang, and the approaches taken to etymologies, dating, geographical labels and sources. It pays particular attention to the subjects of insult and offence, and concludes that politically correct vocabulary offers a fruitful source for new slang in coming years. The introduction is followed by a brief historical account of the major slang dictionaries between 1500 and 2000. A detailed explanation of the ordering and contents of entries and a model of the dictionary layout are also provided. What was missing in the introductory material was a clear statement of the scope of the dictionary (this information is on the back cover of the slip-jacket, and a publicity booklet summarizes its coverage as: ‘the full range of slang over five centuries and from all parts of the English-speaking world’) and an explanation of the distinction between this and Green's ‘overriding work-in progress’ (xiv): a database of slang on historical principles.

Given that slang lexicographers have access to their predecessors’ treatments of the same words, and that Green himself has published numerous slang dictionaries before this one, the most revealing way to evaluate the contents of this dictionary is by comparing a selection of entries with earlier dictionaries. There is no reason to think that the first page of the letter M is representative of the whole, but it has the advantage of covering a stretch of the alphabet represented in both the third edition of the Oxford English dictionary (OED3) and the Historical dictionary of American slang (HDAS). It lists 38 main headwords and seven subsidiary headwords, with a total of 59 definitions. There are also seven cross-references for terms not defined on this page. The preliminary pages do not describe this dictionary as an edition of Green's Cassell's dictionary of slang (Reference Green2005), but the publicity booklet claims that ‘Chambers slang dictionary is a brand-new edition of Jonathon Green's magisterial slang dictionary’ (1). Of the 59 definitions in the Chambers dictionary, 55 are also found in Cassell's. This is only to be expected – a slang lexicographer can hardly take the position that words and phrases already listed should not be included, and this would be an even more perverse position for a lexicographer providing a historical perspective – but it is interesting to consider the extent of the changes.

There is a general tendency to combine homographic headwords wherever possible. In the following examples, Chambers combines two of Cassell's headwords into one:

It is not clear why these were presented as two headwords in Cassell's, nor why they are reduced to one in Chambers. The Mac-10 pistol appears to be abbreviated from ‘Military Armament Corporation Model 10’, in which case it should be listed separately on etymological grounds. The clipping of McMaster University also has a separate origin, and we might expect to see them listed as three separate headwords. Their combination suggests that all grammatically equivalent homographs will be treated together regardless of their origins, but entries for lower-case mac do not fulfil this expectation:

If disparate etymologies do not necessitate the treatment of Cassell's mac n ¹ and n ² as separate headwords, they do not necessitate the retention of macn ³ as an independent headword.

The nesting of phrases and derivatives also leads to some changes in entry structure. For instance:

Treating mabbed-up as a sub-headword in its own right required an improvement in the information provided for it. The textual efficiency of excluding part of the etymology for macca-man is counteracted by the inefficiency of the layout, despite the assertion that this approach ‘saves space’ (xi). Nesting entries is a useful way of showing the productivity of the root-form, but it is unclear how this emphasis on derivation is related to the combination of unrelated homographic headwords discussed above. Where numerous nested terms are listed, as for white, they are grouped by meaning: ‘pertaining to silver’, ‘pertaining to alcohol, esp. gin’, ‘pertaining to drugs’, ‘general uses’. This may be helpful to the user who already knows the meaning of a term, but is an obstacle for those who do not. The nesting of entries is sometimes unpredictable. For instance, lip rug ‘a moustache’ is nested under lip, but lip fart ‘a farting noise made with the lips’ is not.

The combination of entries can also produce ambiguous etymologies. For instance:

Chambers’ sense 3 is provided with two additional etymologies, one from standard English and another from pony (and trap), which work against the rhyming slang etymology provided for this headword as a whole. Another example of conflicting information given at different levels of the entry is seen in Chambers’ Macn5 (see above), where <mack> is given as an alternative spelling specifically for this sense as well as for all senses under the headword, undermining the reader's certainty that senses 1–4 can also be spelt <mack>.

The organization of material within entries is also changed, as is already evident. In Cassell's, the etymologies were at the end of the entry; in Chambers they are located towards the beginning of the entry, following part of speech and variant spellings, but before dates of usage. This reorganization is usually unproblematic, but in some cases the etymology refers back to a definition which now precedes it. Consider the following entry in which Chambers’ reference to the fritter in the etymology field assumes a pre-knowledge of the meaning of the term.

A further systematic change is the provision of post-1969 values for West Indian currency, as in macn ¹, above. Cassell's already provided decimal equivalents for pre-1971 British currency. Numerals (1) are replaced by words (one). The move from ‘A$25’ (Cassell's macaroni n ⁴, sense 2) to ‘(Aus.) $25’ (Chambers macaroni n ², sense 2) may seem insignificant, but the Chambers’ version leaves open the possibility that a speaker of Australian English might use the term to refer to twenty-five American dollars.

Having considered the systematic changes, it is now possible to turn to the particular. The new definitions are:

• mabbyadj. [? Female name Mab(el)] [mid-19C] (UK Und.) cowardly, timid.

• mab-riddenadj. [mid-19C] (UK Und.) frightened (of retribution), suffering a guilty conscience.

• macaroni with cheesen. [1970s+] (US black) someone involved in a wide variety of activities such as pimping, drug-selling and gambling games.

–; and sense 2 of McCoy:

None of these new senses represents a recent development or coinage. Nevertheless, these terms are not listed in the OED, in Lighter's HDAS, in Beale's edition of Partridge's Dictionary of slang and unconventional English (Reference Partridge and Beale1984), or in Dalzell and Victor's New Partridge dictionary (Reference Dalzell and Victor2006).

The most frequent type of change made to existing entries is the provision of new or improved etymologies. For instance:

A new derivative for masonn ¹, masoner ‘one who gives a promissory note in exchange for a purchase, with no intention of honouring it’, explains the new suggested etymology for mace. Like the new entries for mabby and mab-ridden, above, masoner is labelled as ‘UK Und.’.

Two definitions in this sample were rewritten. McCoyadj was expanded from ‘genuine’ (Cassell's) to ‘genuine, correct, excellent’ (Chambers), to represent a broader usage that is not listed in any of the other dictionaries consulted. Chambers’ Mac n (above) rewords sense two slightly, from ‘a Scottish man’ to ‘a male Scot’, perhaps to encompass possible reference to Scottish boys. A detailed bibliographic note for macaroonn ¹ ‘according to Nares these are the only cits., orig. noted in Todd's edn of Johnson's Dictionary’, does not survive into the Chambers dictionary. Ma ‘a derog. title put before a man's name to imply his homosexuality’ is changed from prefix to noun, and mother is supplied as an alternative form. In each of these cases, the change is clearly carefully considered.

Less clear are the reasons behind changes in the provision of cross-references. Cassell's macaronin ¹, sense 2 ‘an Italian’ is cross-referred to dago, but not in Chambers. The omission of cross-references to alligator-bait from both nigger and coon suggests that this represents a policy of avoiding unnecessary offence. Undefined headwords for maccaroni and maccarony are also omitted, in this case presumably because it is assumed that the reader will consult the standard spelling. McDaddy and macdaddy appear together, both are undefined and both direct the reader to mack daddy. These could, perhaps, have been usefully combined.

In summary, Green's Chambers slang dictionary represents an improvement on his Cassell's dictionary of slang. Additional words and senses are included, and definitions and etymologies have been refined and improved. The nesting of phrases and compounds is an interesting development, but it implies an emphasis on etymology that the combination of headwords sometimes contradicts. In addition, some of the systematic changes have had an unfortunate impact on the clarity of individual entries. Citations and references are generally not provided, and thus datings can only be taken on trust. The inclusion of supporting material would have produced a considerably larger and more expensive dictionary. Despite the imperfections, this is the best general dictionary of historical slang in English currently available, and Green's status as ‘a minor deity’ (xiii) remains unassailable.