Eric Partridge
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Eric Partridge (February 6, 1894-1979) was a lexicographer born on the North Island of New Zealand. He moved to Australia in 1905 and studied at the Universities of Queensland and Oxford. Partridge taught for three years as a school teacher before serving in the Australian infantry during the First World War. Afterwards, he continued his studies as a fellow at the University of Oxford, earning himself eventual lecturing positions at the Universities of Manchester and London. In 1927 he founded the Scholartis Press, which he managed until it closed in 1931. In 1932 he became a full-time writer, occupying the same desk (K1) in the Reading Room of the British Museum almost daily for the next fifty years. This was interrupted only by his service in the army and the RAF during World War II. He wrote over forty books on the English language, including works on etymology and slang.
Works
- A Charm of Words. New York, Macmillan Company, 1961 (copyright 1960)
- A New Testament Word Book: a Glossary London, George Routledge & Sons, 1940. Republished New York, Books for Libraries Press, 1970. The 1987 republication by the Christian publisher Barbour & Company of Uhricksville, Ohio as The Book of New Testament Word Studies, with copyright claimed by the publisher, appears to be a copyright violation.
- The 'Shaggy Dog' Story. New York, Philosophical Library, 1954
- A Dictionary of the Underworld.
- From Sanskrit to Brazil. Hamish Hamilton.
- Here, There and Everywhere. Hamish Hamilton.
- Name Into Word. Secker & Warburg
- A Dictionary of Catch Phrases. Routledge & Kegan Paul/Stein and Day.
- A Dictionary of Clichés. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- A Dictionary of Forces' Slang.
- Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang.
- Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (1958). Reprint: Greenwich House, New York, 1983. ISBN 0-517-414252. Reprint: Random House Value Publishing(1988)
- A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English 1st edition: London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937.
- 2nd edition 1938
- 3rd edition 1949
- 4th edition 1951
- 5th edition in two volumes, supplement much enlarged, 1961. Reprinted in 1 vol. 1963. Mary Martin Books. Adelaide, South Australia.
- 6th edition 1967
- 7th edition 1970
- 8th edition London and New York, Routledge, 1984
- Shakespeare's Bawdy. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul/New York, E. P. Dutton & Co. (1948), Reprint: Routledge (1991) ISBN 0415050766
- Slang Today and Yesterday. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- A Smaller Slang Dictionary.
- You Have A Point There: A Guide to Punctuation and its Allies.
- Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English. Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Books. Reprint: W. W. Norton & Company (1997) ISBN 0393317099
- Name This Child. Hamish Hamilton.
- Name Your Child. Evans Bros.
- Eric Partridge In His Own Words. Edited by David Crystal. 1980. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York. ISBN 0-02-528960-8.