Tight = drunk

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:22 AM -0400 5/1/07, Alice Faber wrote:
>Your Name wrote:
>>A friend in Texas says she has never heard "tight" used as a euphemism for
>>"drunk."  Here in upstate NY it's quite common.  Is the expression
>>really that
>>regional?
>>
>>Rosemarie
>>
>>The people who are late are often so much  jollier than the people who have
>>to wait for them.  -  E.V.  Lucas
>>
>
>I grew up in the part of NY State that some people call upstate and
>others don't. For me, in the 60s and 70s, "tight" meant "tipsy" (but not
>outright inebriated).
>
and apparently Hemingway had the same understanding, based on that
exchange Sarah Lang just quoted from _The Sun Also Rises_:
======================

[Jake Barnes:] "I was just a little tight."
"Tight!" Brett exclaimed. "You were blind!

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