Does the Frequency of Definitions for a Particular Drug in Slang Dictionaries Predict Quantity of Knowledge of the Slang?

Abstract

The percentages of opiate addicts (N = 83), alcoholics (N = 23), and normals (N = 23) who knew 278 slang words that refer to heroin, Benzedrine (stimulants), alcohol, “goofballs” (barbiturates), and “reefers” (marijuana) were correlated with the corresponding number of definitions for these words in 13 slang dictionaries. The correlations between the percentages of knowledge of words and the corresponding frequency of definitions for all classes of words combined were 0.38 for opiate addicts, 0.27 for normals, and 0.18 for alcoholics. The correlation was lower for alcoholics because they knew definitions of alcohol, whereas the dictionary constructors frequently excluded these. Knowledge of slang in specialized groups was much more predictive from the knowledge in normals than from the frequency of dictionary definitions. This difference suggests that the utility of slang dictionaries may be advanced by showing the relative knowledge of the words in some target population such as normal subjects.