Tight = drunk

[Joel S. Berson]

However, "tight" is not in the 1736 American
"Drinkers Dictionary", once but no longer attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

Nor is "high".

Joel

At 5/1/2007 09:37 AM, you wrote:
>OED has this back to the 1830s, as will HDAS.
>
>It was very frequent in America from the mid
>19th C. on, though it sounds a little
>old-fashioned to me now. Unlike "high," it seems
>not to have extended its meaning to include drug intoxication.
>
>For "high," see HDAS.
>
>JL
>
>Bill Lemay <blemay0 at MCHSI.COM> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society
>Poster:       Bill Lemay
>Subject:      Re: Tight = drunk
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Annie Ross penned these vocalese lyrics for "Twisted" in 1952.
>
>===========================
>
>but I heard little children
>Were supposed to sleep tight
>That's why I got into the vodka one night
>My parents got frantic
>Didn't know what to do
>But I saw some crazy scenes
>Before I came to
>
>================
>
>Per Wikipedia...
>"Although Ross was born in England (of Scottish parents), she was raised in
>the United States — living in California with her aunt"
>
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>
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