Publisher's Synopsis
Calling all Dapper Dans and Oomph Girls - take a ride through the American lexicon at its most inventive. Word lovers, screenwriters, and movie buffs will find a bonanza of timeless language and lost words and phrases.
The Cheaper the Crook, the Gaudier the Patter: Forgotten Hipster Lines, Tough Guy Talk, and Jive Gems explores the rich vocabulary of gangsters, hipsters, jazz musicians, and military personnel of the 1930s and '40s. Entries include definitions, etymology, and examples of usage. Chapters include:
- Gumshoes, Gunsels, Mugs, and Molls
- Daddies, Dishes, Dreamboats, and Drugstore Cowboys
- Hipsters, Hepsters, Daddy-O's, and Zoot-Suiters
- Swabbies, Sad Sacks, Broke Dicks, and Jodies
- Wood Pushers, White -Shoes, Kibitzers, and Knuckle Busters
- Four-Flushers, Two-Times, Bad Eggs, and Egg Suckers
This delightful compendium celebrates the linguistic gems cut and polished during the Great Depression, World War I, and the postwar fifties-now forgotten or in danger of being forgotten.
