> says?

fwiw OED2 says this:

colloq.

Also 'phone. [Abbrev. telephone: telephone v.]

a. trans. = telephone: telephone v. 1c. Also const. up and with advbs.

b. intr. = telephone: telephone v. 1a. Freq. with particle as phrasal verb or with advbs.

c. trans. Const. in. = telephone: telephone v. 1b.

The first citation is from 1889; Scott Fitzgerald uses it in The Great Gatsby in 1925 and Eugene O'Neill in act 3 of Great God Brown in 1926 - so I guess whilst it's certainly colloquial it has good grandparents by now!

Isn't there a difference between slang and colloquial, but?

Yes, I am basically in agreement - t'aint slang, it's a colloquialism that has quite a (heh) lineage by now.

colloquial:

1. Of or pertaining to colloquy; conversational.

2. spec. Of words, phrases, etc.: Belonging to common speech; characteristic of or proper to ordinary conversation, as distinguished from formal or elevated language. (The usual sense.)

Looks like another thread where we might end up a cordless. Wire you guys doing this?

For those of you not paying attention, Logwood's native language is not English. The fact that he speaks (well, writes -- which is even more difficult) it so well is worthy of praise. "Slang" and "colloquialism" are close enough in my book for the point he was getting across. [/harrumph]

(Thanks Anna)

You should all know I usually work by my Babylon dictionary (which I've been using for the past 5 years, nowadays much less frequently though), thereby "slang" is written on brackets upon the nominal definition of "phone" (and not the verbal ones). Babylon, as it seems, uses "slang" for colloquialism too. But of course the fiddling inaccuracies of dictionaries are always debatable... although just so you know, the definition I get there for slang is "n. informal words or phrases, colloquial language..." etc.

So if you wish to continue nitpicking, feel free to contact Babylon... don't kill the messenger.

Take heart, Logwood. At least your dictionary is called Babylon and not Babel.

Asp:

Did ya notice how everyone's getting all colicky?

[/duck and run]

Babylon is a dictionary? wow, i know it as a town on LI's south shore. (big station on LIRR, too!)

(Utopia is a street in queens.)

Babel - n. clamor, discord, confusion (like a scene from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel) -- yes, makes sense to me.

of troy-- heh, naturally I was referring to the popular software, presuming folks here are familiar with it.

> For those of you not paying attention, Logwood's native language is not English. The fact that he speaks (well, writes -- which is even more difficult) it so well is worthy of praise. "Slang" and "colloquialism" are close enough in my book for the point he was getting across. [/harrumph]

Thanks for pointing that out, oh bibliophilous babe! It’s a tribute to Logwood’s command of the language, as well as my lack of care, that I had no idea.

jftr, when I include a quote as I did earlier, my intention is as far as imaginable from laying down the law – most times, I am simply sharing my own discoveries. And at the moment of course I’ll probably go overboard in sheer delight at having rediscovered my OEDipal chord/cored/cord

fwiw, the noun definition for your delight, Logwood:

N2
Also 'phone.
1. Colloq. abbreviation of telephone n. Also, a telephone call.
2. Colloq. abbrev. of ear-phone s.v. ear n.1 17, head-phone. Usu. pl.
3. attrib. and Comb. (in sense 1), as phone bell, call, caller, exchange [exchange n. 10c], installation, jack [jack n.1 15d], kiosk, message, operator [operator 5a], order, receiver, wire; phone-answering ppl. adj. and vbl. n.; phone bill, an account for the cost of hire of a telephone and of calls made from it; phone book, a telephone directory; phone booth, box, a box-like kiosk in which a public telephone is installed; phonecard, a pre-paid card designed for use with a cardphone; phone number, the identifying call-number assigned to a telephone, line, etc.; phone patch [patch n.1 6f], a temporary radio link made to establish communication between a radio operator and a telephone user; phone-tapping vbl. n. = telephone-tapping vbl. n.; so phone-tap n. and v. trans.; phone-tapper.



As for the difference between ‘slang’ and the accurately defined ‘informal speech’ already given for ‘colloquial’, I always think of slang as being a subset of the latter, and towards its most informal range where language turns into more specialised argot. The OED confirms the lower social standing connotations of the word, too:


[A word of cant origin, the ultimate source of which is not apparent. It is possible that some of the senses may represent independent words. In all senses except 1 only in slang or canting use.
The date and early associations of the word make it unlikely that there is any connexion with certain Norw. forms in sleng- which exhibit some approximation in sense.]
1. a. The special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type. (Now merged in c.)
In the first quot. the reference may be to customs or habits rather than language: cf. the use of slang a. 2b.
b. The special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession; the cant or jargon of a certain class or period.
c. Language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense.
d. Abuse, impertinence. (Cf. slang v. 3, 4.)

†2. Humbug, nonsense. Obs.—1

†3. A line of work; a ‘lay’. Obs.—1

4. A licence, esp. that of a hawker.

5. a. A travelling show.
b. A performance.
c. attrib., as slang cove, cull, a showman.

6. A short weight or measure. (Cf. slang a. 3.)



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