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Jan. 4th, 2009 06:00 pmBesotted — Etymologically, That Is
"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 “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”
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”
Raise your glasses, my friends, it's time for whoops and jingles :)
"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 “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”
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”
Raise your glasses, my friends, it's time for whoops and jingles :)
