24 SEPTEMBER 1977, Page 16

Slang

Sir: Benny Green may profess a superior knowledge of Hollywood and Broadway (yes, and comic postcards too) than, perhaps, he imagines Eric Partridge does; but, in the vast empire of slang and all its offshoots, I know who is the unrivalled supremo.

'Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work', an American commentator once crudely but correctly observed. The results are surely apparent from those masterly, oneman-orientated, pioneering dictionaries that owe their inspiration and industry to the unflagging efforts of Eric Partridge who, at eighty-three, remains our most preeminent lexicographer and word-wizard. John O'Fliordan 79 The Mall, Southgate, London N14