Description

Are you way ahead of me, bai?

If you know what it means to be 'all Gillette' or to give someone a 'backer', congratulations – you're fluent in one of the most colourful, inventive, and downright hilarious dialects in the English-speaking world. If you haven't a clue, then this book is exactly what you need.

Langers and Lashes is the most comprehensive collection of Cork slang ever assembled – the words, phrases, and expressions that make Cork speech like nowhere else on earth. Crude and clever, affectionate and savage, ancient and freshly minted: this is the living language of a city that has always done things its own way.

Corkonians will nod in delighted recognition. Everyone else will wonder what they've been missing.

Cork slang carries the wit, the warmth, the sarcasm, and yes, the prejudices of generations – and this edition documents that history honestly. Whether you're a native Corkonian, a proud blow-in, or a visitor trying to decode what on earth the man on the 208 bus just said to you, Langers and Lashes is your essential guide to the greatest slang in Ireland – and, as any Corkonian will tell you, that means the greatest in the world. 'When it comes to Cork slang, I'm way ahead of you, bai.' – Des MacHale