Howard N. Rose’s Thesaurus of Slang (1934): Its purpose, structure, contents, reliability, and sources

This paper is a re-examination of Howard N. Rose’s Thesaurus of Slang (1934): of its purpose, structure, contents, reliability, and sources. Contemporary reviewers were largely unimpressed, and their criticisms are also considered. Despite its undoubtedly poor quality, Rose’s work provides some interesting insights into attitudes towards American English, the power of the word “thesaurus”, and the partiality of the reviewing process.