Drink, drank drunk

Well now in the way people talk "drunk" can be a noun and therefore is used when people are such. Plus drunkard sounds dorky. I don't think people who go to bars will say, "look at that drunkard."

I think current usage sanctions "drunk".

Growing up I heard much disapproval about the "rummys" down by the river. Crossword puzzles are big on "sots". I know a 44 year old Black Sheep who is still known as a "bottle baby".

Andy, According to my handy-dandy dictionary, the term "drunk," when referring to a person who has imbibed too much, was first used in 1779. I'd say it's been around long enough to be an okay term.

I have no problem with "drunkard." A bit more formal. Let's face it, a tippler by any other name still needs a breath mint.

1779, huh? Gee, that's even older than I am.

And, speaking of old, does that delightful word 'dipsomaniac' still have any currency anywhere?

Yes, it is heard at times over here, but its usage is confined to just jocular use, which is a shame.

This reminds me that I could read Jack London again :wink:

Yep - that's the way it goes
Drink - drank - DRUNK.

I can't cite any examples right now. I'll keep my ears open. But several times lately on NPR I have heard stories where the reporter should have, IMHO, used the past participle but didn't.
A local cab company has little witticisms written on the trunks of their cars:
"One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor."

Alcoholics Anonymous has a motto, emphasizing the importance of group unity:

I get drunk. We stay sober.

Jack London? When I was a lad of 13 or so (a half-century ago) I devoured every one of his stories.
The most haunting one is about a man, trapped in the wilderness with only a few matches. He attempts and succeeds in getting a fire started. But then...
I moved on to Poe and Twain and beyond, but London was the bridge between little kids' books and real literature. Thanks. -rjb-

drunk as Larry Dooley?

I prefer "as full as the family po"

Jack London and drinking. If you're ever in Oakland, CA, you must visit the First and Last Chance Saloon on the waterfront. It used to be a Jack London hangout. What is unique about this little hole-in-the-wall bar is that it slants -- I kid you not -- at almost a 45-degree angle. Floor, bar counter, everything is aslant. I was told that this dates back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Oakland wasn't badly damaged in the quake. But the saloon was built on pilings over the pier. The tidal surge made the pilings settle and caused the whole structure to go lopsided. For sentimental reasons, I guess, nobody has ever bothered to straighten the thing out and now it's on the National Register of Historic Buildings. The joint's been in operation as a gin-mill since 1881, continuously. (I wonder what they sold during Prohibition?)

If you had to ask, they probably wouldn't have sold you any.

Jack London. The Call of the Wild. I loved Buck.

here is a collection of words to desribe being drunk, drink, dronk : basted, boiled, bunned, embalmed, illuminated, (and the one i like best) Methodistconated - there about another twenty words for being drunk (from the book : "dewdroppers, waldos, and slackers - a decade-by-decade guide to the vanishing vocabulary of the twentieth century"). it's a real hoot ! hbg

Merry Andrew, while describing a saloon, made this observation...



My first thought was: Do they have pool tables? That would make for an interesting game indeed.

does it slant BEFORE you have had some drinks or does it start to slant once you started to snort a few ? when it starts to move sideways ... it's time to stop drinking(or start moving with the motion ) ! hbg ... hick, hick hick ...