Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk

Subject: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:41 AM

I am sorry to see that this thread on drunk nomenclature is closed.

From the NY Times irregulars (emphasis added):

"As far as I'm aware, English has the richest vocabulary of any language when it comes to describing the effects of alcohol upon human behavior. I think that that's because the British have been constant and heavy drinkers for most of their history. From the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the Industrial Revolution, they've been getting beodrunken, foxed, tipsy, pie-eyed and woozey. Indeed the English have developed an entire lexicon to express different nuances of the same condition.

The habit has traveled with the language: in America, in particular, English speakers have sought to expand the range of euphemisms for inebriation. In January 1736, Benjamin Franklin published "a new Piece, lately communicated to me, entitled the DRINKERS DICTIONARY" in the Philadelphia Gazette, which offered 228 "distant round-about phrases," culled from the taverns of the town, which were understood "to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK." My favorites include the following:

"He sees the Bears"

"He's got his Top Gallant Sails out"

"He's kiss'd black Betty"

"He's Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast"

"Been too free with Sir Richard"

"Nimptopsical"

"Trammel'd"

The Drinkers' Dictionary evokes the age and the place in which it was collated. Probably half of its entries are seamen's slang — and reflect the importance of maritime commerce to Philadelphia at the time. A good many others are rustic and feature such colonial exotica as Indians, bears, and kibb'ed heels. The influence of the Bible is also evident — even drunks knew their way around the Good Book in those days.

Just under two centuries later, the Dictionary was revisited by Edmund Wilson in his "Lexicon of Prohibition." It too is something of a time capsule, with a number of terms and phrases which sing of the Jazz Age, including:

"Zozzled"

"to have the whoops and jingles"

"to burn with a low blue flame"

However, the Lexicon listed a mere 105 expressions for drunkenness — fewer than half of the terms that appear in its 18th century equivalent. Wilson attributed the decline to changes in drinking patterns brought on by prohibition: "It is interesting to note that one hears nowadays less often of people going on sprees, toots, tears, jags, bats, brannigans or benders. All these terms suggest, not merely drunkenness, but also an exceptional occurrence, a breaking away by the drinker from the conditions of his normal life. It is possible that their partial disappearance is mainly to be accounted for by the fact that this kind of fierce and protracted drinking has now become universal, an accepted feature of social life instead of a disreputable escapade." He did, however, believe that terms used to describe social drinking had become more nuanced during the Noble Experiment.

I wonder how long the list of words and phrases for being under the influence would be today? Some of the old terms, such as "stoned," coined in Jacobean England to denote lustful drunkenness, are now applied to the discombobulation brought on by different drugs than alcohol. Others vanished with the days of sail. I ran through a good two dozen in my head at Espasante when I was searching for a word that went into Spanish easily. Merry? Caned? Loaded? Stocious? ..."

---

If we have actuallty lost hundreds of perfectly good descriptive terms for inebriation, a serious erosion is underway which must be arrested forthwith.

Your contributions are invited.

besotted
bit by the creature
bladdered
blind      
Blitzed
bloatered
Blootered
blue blind bleezin drunk
blue blind paralytic drunk
bombed
bombed
boozed
boozy
boshed
bug-eyed
cockeyed
crapulent
crapulous
crawled in a bottle for the night
crocked
delivering street pizza
dipsy
drunk as a judge
drunk as a lord
drunk as a sailor
Drunk as a skunk
drunken
drunker than Cooter Brown (whoever he was)
excited
face walking
floor-crawling
fucked
full as a puppy
Gutter crawling
guttered
half-seas over
hammered
He took the two sides of the road
high
high as a kite
hog-whimpering drunksloshed
hooped
in one's cups
in the final stages
inebriate
inebriated
intoxicated
knackered
langers
like a sheep
lit (up)
loaded
loaded like howitzers
looped
muddled
Mulled
Newted
One beyond the eight
pallatic
paralized
paralytic
pavement kissing
pickled
Pissed
Pissed as a newt
pissing-down-your-own-leg drunk
pixilated
plastered
plastered
polluted
pot-hugging
potted
pre-hungover
puggled
refreshed as a newt
riding the beer wagon
rotten
rumbled
Schnockered
shitfaced
sloshed
sloshed
slurry
Smashed
smashed
sodden
soused
soused
soused as a pigs face
stewed
stewed
stewed
stinking stinko
stocious
stoned
stortin (which applies to when you are walking along the pavement bouncing off the wall in a series semi-circular loops)
Stupefied
talking on the big white telephone
talking to god
talking to the porcelain microphone
talking to your shoes
the pure blind staggers
Three parts Olivered
three sheets to the wind
throwing chunks
tight
tight
tipsy
toasted
toddy stricken
tongue-twisted
trashed
wall-bouncing
wasted
whirly
wrecked
yawning at the sidewalk
yawning in technicolour
zonked

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:43 AM

"You kinda look like the dawgs had ya under the porch" (from Midchuck)

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:55 AM

I would be the last to say he was drunk , but there WAS a newt following him round taking notes .

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 12:25 PM

My Viking ancestors undoubtedly introduced, aided, abetted and generally contributed to this rich trove of alcoholic lore. The American modifications on many of these British, Irish and Scottish originals are also quite colorful.

Shit-faced (or, for the more pious, shifazzed)
Tighter'n Dick's hatband
Tighter than a tick
Blinded by who-hit-John?
Loaded to the gills
Embalmed
Ossified
"Gloriously and symmetrically drunk - drunk in all particulars" (Mark
    Twain)
Alcoholically transcendant
corpus in spiritus fermenti
In articulo mortis
Dipsomanic
Stiff as a board
Marinated
Blasted
Stiff as a dead salmon
Drunk as Hogan's goat
So drunk you could remove his liver and use it for a doorstop

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 12:30 PM

Stolting should be Stotting, or Stoatting, as in when kids play ball games against a wall, it's stotting a ba' aff a wa'

JM

Pissed as a fart in a bottle

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: open mike
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 01:23 PM

under the table
tanked

medical/emergency services "code"
E.T.O.H.
alcohol on board

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 02:10 PM

ETOH???


A

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: open mike
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 04:26 PM

chemical formula for Ethyl Alcohol

EtOH, a shorthand form of ethanol, a chemical compound

see also: http://www.scielo.cl/fbpe/img/bscq/v46n1/img61.jpg

also "Etoh", a song by The Avalanches from their 2001 album Since I Left You

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 04:27 PM

I always liked an expression used by my father and his brother.
"As drunk as a fiddlers bitch". Don't know where it comes from. Possibly a local phrase from Portsmouth (UK) where they and I were born and raised.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 06:10 PM

Benjamin Franklin's full list here - scroll down

there are some great descriptions there!

sandra

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: open mike
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 06:38 PM

And Ben is the guy who said:
"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: oldhippie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 07:46 PM

"Ten Little Bottles" by Johnny Bond was a great song, this thread of the thousand made me think of it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 08:10 PM

Well, with all due respect, I cannot stand by and let Ben Franklin's priceless list stay dependent on some unknown server, whose endurance I do not know and whose owner may be stout or flakey.

Therefore, I append good Ben's list here for all posterity to fall back on, or for us when we fall back on our own posterities:

A:

He is Addled,
He's casting up his Accounts,
He's Afflicted,
He's in his Airs.

B
He's Biggy,
Bewitch'd,
Block and Block,
Boozy,
Bowz'd,
Been at Barbadoes,
Piss'd in the Brook,
Drunk as a Wheel-Barrow,
Burdock'd,
Buskey,
Buzzey,
Has Stole a Manchet out of the Brewer's Basket,
His Head is full of Bees,
Has been in the Bibbing Plot,
Has drank more than he has bled,
He's Bungey,
As Drunk as a Beggar,
He sees the Bears,
He's kiss'd black Betty,
He's had a Thump over the Head with Sampson's Jawbone,
He's Bridgey.

C
He's Cat,
Cagrin'd,
Capable,
Cramp'd,
Cherubimical,
Cherry Merry,
Wamble Crop'd,
Crack'd,
Concern'd,
Half Way to Concord,
Has taken a Chirriping-Glass,
Got Corns in his Head,
A Cup to much,
Coguy,
Copey,
He's heat his Copper,
He's Crocus,
Catch'd,
He cuts his Capers,
He's been in the Cellar,
He's in his Cups,
Non Compos,
Cock'd,
Curv'd,
Cut,
Chipper,
Chickery,
Loaded his Cart,
He's been too free with the Creature,
Sir Richard has taken off his Considering Cap,
He's Chap-fallen,

D
He's Disguiz'd,
He's got a Dish,
Kill'd his Dog,
Took his Drops,
It is a Dark Day with him,
He's a Dead Man,
Has Dipp'd his Bill,
He's Dagg'd,
He's seen the Devil,

E
He's Prince Eugene,
Enter'd,
Wet both Eyes,
Cock Ey'd,
Got the Pole Evil,
Got a brass Eye,
Made an Example,
He's Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast.
In his Element,

F
He's Fishey,
Fox'd,
Fuddled,
Sore Footed,
Frozen,
Well in for't,
Owes no Man a Farthing,
Fears no Man,
Crump Footed,
Been to France,
Flush'd,
Froze his Mouth,
Fetter'd,
Been to a Funeral,
His Flag is out,
Fuzl'd,
Spoke with his Friend,
Been at an Indian Feast.

G
He's Glad,
Groatable,
Gold-headed,
Glaiz'd,
Generous,
Booz'd the Gage,
As Dizzy as a Goose,
Been before George,
Got the Gout,
Had a Kick in the Guts,
Been with Sir John Goa,
Been at Geneva,
Globular,
Got the Glanders.

H
Half and Half,
Hardy,
Top Heavy,
Got by the Head,
Hiddey,
Got on his little Hat,
Hammerish,
Loose in the Hilts,
Knows not the way Home,
Got the Hornson,
Haunted with Evil Spirits,
Has Taken Hippocrates grand Elixir,

I
He's Intoxicated,
Jolly,
Jagg'd,
Jambled,
Going to Jerusalem,
Jocular,
Been to Jerico,
Juicy.

K
He's a King,
Clips the King's English,
Seen the French King,
The King is his Cousin,
Got Kib'd Heels,
Knapt,
Het his Kettle.

L
He's in Liquor,
Lordly,
He makes Indentures with his Leggs,
Well to Live,
Light,
Lappy,
Limber,

M
He sees two Moons,
Merry,
Middling,
Moon-Ey'd,
Muddled,
Seen a Flock of Moons,
Maudlin,
Mountous,
Muddy,
Rais'd his Monuments,
Mellow,

N
He's eat the Cocoa Nut,
Nimptopsical,
Got the Night Mare,

O
He's Oil'd,
Eat Opium,
Smelt of an Onion,
Oxycrocium,
Overset,

P
He drank till he gave up his Half-Penny,
Pidgeon Ey'd,
Pungey,
Priddy,
As good conditioned as a Puppy,
Has scalt his Head Pan,
Been among the Philistines,
In his Prosperity,
He's been among the Philippians,
He's contending with Pharaoh,
Wasted his Paunch,
He's Polite,
Eat a Pudding Bagg,

Q
He's Quarrelsome,

R
He's Rocky,
Raddled,
Rich,
Religious,
Lost his Rudder,
Ragged,
Rais'd,
Been too free with Sir Richard,
Like a Rat in Trouble.

S
He's Stitch'd,
Seafaring,
In the Sudds,
Strong,
Been in the Sun,
As Drunk as David's Sow,
Swampt,
His Skin is full,
He's Steady,
He's Stiff,
He's burnt his Shoulder,
He's got his Top Gallant Sails out,
Seen the yellow Star,
As Stiff as a Ring-bolt,
Half Seas over,
His Shoe pinches him,
Staggerish,
It is Star-light with him,
He carries too much Sail,
Stew'd
Stubb'd,
Soak'd,
Soft,
Been too free with Sir John Strawberry,
He's right before the Wind with all his Studding Sails out,
Has Sold his Senses.

T
He's Top'd,
Tongue-ty'd,
Tann'd,
Tipium Grove,
Double Tongu'd,
Topsy Turvey,
Tipsey,
Has Swallow'd a Tavern Token,
He's Thaw'd,
He's in a Trance,
He's Trammel'd,

V
He makes Virginia Fence,
Valiant,
Got the Indian Vapours,

W
The Malt is above the Water,
He's Wise,
He's Wet,
He's been to the Salt Water,
He's Water-soaken,
He's very Weary,
Out of the Way.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Mark Ross
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:58 PM

You weren't plastered last night, you were stuccoed!
                            Utah Phillips(c.1976)
Blue-blind,paralytic,falling down,knee-walking, drunk
                            Ibid.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Joe_F
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 08:40 PM

I have seen a statement that "drunk" is the word with the largest number of slang synonyms in English. For a list in 2 pages of fine print, see _Slang and Euphemism_ by Richard A. Spears (Jonathan David Publishers, 1981) s.v. woofled.

I am not quite burning with a low blue flame as I write this, but the other day (a recognized occasion) I split a bottle of bubbly with a buddy who only took one glass.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: The Hiker
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:49 PM

Here's a couple more
Locked
Locked Solid
Moylo
Maith Go Leor
Stupified
Box Walkin
Hanging Drunk
Rat Arsed
Gone to Cobh
Buckled from drink
Saturated
Mangled
Tri Na Ceile

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:55 PM

Rubber legged

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 05:25 PM

Durn! I'd take an oath that I posted to this thread this morning. I guess I have to try again.

tiddled?


And two which are at least derived from German:

Bezooft       and
Geschmackt

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 09:32 AM

P.G.Wodehouse wrote a kind of thesaurus of terms meaning 'drunk', which was circular in that it began with something like "Awash: see blotto" and ended with "Woozled: see awash".
I'm afraid I can't remember which book it's in, though it shouldn't be hard to trace.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:08 AM

Language Log referenced that article and commenters reckon that Spanish has just as many, it is just the writer doesn't have the vocabulary.

One commenter mentions comedian Michael MacIntyre to the effect that "one can actually turn any English word into a past participle and it will mean drunk. The example he uses is 'I got absolutely bungalowed'."

Let's see -

I got absolutely mudcatted
I got absolutely folked
I got absolutely banjoed
I got absolutely morrissed
I got absolutely diddly-diddlied
I got absolutely plucked
I got absolutely floorsingered
I got absolutely clubbed

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 11:20 AM

Anthony Newly, as I faintly recall, used the term "lumbered" in a song from back in the 1960's. Some of you folk in the "home islands" surely know the meaning of that term. Has it anything to do with drunken behavior or more to do with being savaged by another in a most personal way?

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 11:54 AM

Lumbered can also mean cluttered, stacked up or burdened. I have never before encountered it as meaning drunk, buty it may be regional and it has a certain logic do it. You get to staggering along like a man carrying a great load of lumber. And also lumbering along as though your boots were much too heavy for your legs.


A

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 09 - 06:22 PM

battered

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Gweltas
Date: 17 Mar 09 - 01:55 AM

My late father used to describe an inebriated person as : "Being under the affluence of incohol"!! The most commonly heard local expression for drunkeness, where I now live, is "Completely Ratted" and "Rat Arsed"!! Forgive me if these have already been mentioned by earlier posters, but there were so many I just lost track, LOL.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: pavane
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 03:53 AM

I can't see one of he most relevant terms here (being musical!)
And still in common use in the UK

Brahms

short for Brahms and Liszt, rhyming slang for "pissed" = drunk

There is even a web site at www.brahmsandliszt.com

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: TenorTwo
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 06:08 AM

I've been noticing a term gaining currency locally (East Suffolk, GB) which I've never heard anywhere else, If I ask around, everyone I speak to says they heard it from someone else who, when asked, says they heard it from ... etc, etc

Anyone else ever heard "Shanna-fannered" or, in full, "Shanna-fanna-shoelace-faced"?

Personally, I'll carry on just getting hat-racked as usual.

T2

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 07:43 AM

Pissed as three pricks at a piss stone (US Piss stone = urinal)
Pissed as a parrot
Pissed as a one-wheeled handcart
Elephants (elephants = elephant's trunk = drunk)
Wasted
Wellied
Bitched, Bolloxed and Bewildered.
Motto (Romani)
Mullered
Stopped a few going bad, he's
Lordly
Taking both sides of the street
arse'oled

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 07:52 AM

Sorry ! - forgot two :

Pissed rigid
Pissed crosseyed

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 07:56 AM

Two more :

Tight as a tadpole

Tight as a crab's arse (often applied to one who is mean with money, or who "ducks his round" :-D)

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: pavane
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 08:45 AM

The phrase "blue-blind paralytic drunk" actually occurs in the lyrics of The Old Dun Cow. (Just to convert this to a genuine music thread, if Brahms didn't do the job)

Subject: RE: Folklore: The Thousand Names of Drunk
From: TenorTwo
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 09:24 AM

Oh, and another one: "azza" - as in "he was absolutely azza last night." Short for "pissed as a fart", of course.

T2