21 Delightful Obsolete Terms For "Drunk" It's High Time We Revived
I'm off to get well and truly pifflicated.
1.
1930s.
2.
1700s.
3.
1700s.
4.
1800s.
5.
1800s.
6.
1800s. Refers to the centuries-old English tradition of "mop fairs", which started out as opportunities for domestic staff to offer themselves up for hire, but gradually became associated with boozy debauchery.
7.
1800s.
8.
1700s.
9.
1800s. Bungay is a market town on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, and "go to Bungay!" may once have been a variant on 'Go to hell!", but no-one knows for sure.
10.
Features in the immense list of synonyms for drunk that Benjamin Franklin wrote for the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1737. Other phrases in the list include "His head is full of bees", and "Been among the Philistines".
11.
1800s.
12.
1500s.
13.
1700s. Another one from Benjamin Franklin's Drinker's Dictionary. One explanation is that pharaoh is a misinterpretation of "faro", which was a popular form of Belgian beer at the time.
14.
1800s.
15.
1600s. The origin is mysterious, but may have been a reference to someone drunk on French wine or brandy.
16.
1800s.
17.
1900s.
18.
1800s.
19.
1800s.
20.
1940s. Originally a nineteenth century hunting term meaning fully armed and equipped, this phrase found its way into the gambling world before coming to refer to drunkenness.
21.
1900s.
Photos via CrapTaxidermy, the blog which is now a book, called Much Ado About Stuffing.
Post inspired by Jedburgh Justice and Kentish Fire: The Origins of English in Ten Phrases and Expressions, the forthcoming book by Paul Anthony Jones.