Tight = drunk

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not widely known is that European crowns of the 17th C. actually had interior bands, colloquially, "hat bands."  In powerful nations like Britain, France, and Spain, these bands were made of silk, but poorer countries such as the German states relied on leather to keep the golden headgear from slipping from regal brows.

Richard Cromwell, however, a radical Protestant like his father, refused to wear the crown with a silken band to which he was entitled as second Lord Protector. he opted instead for the crown with the humbler leather band.

Centuries after the humorous phrase, "queer as Dick [Cromwell]'s hat band," leaped the Atlantic to the Colonies, the phrase became popularly, though erroneously, with American President Richard M. Nixon. The basis of humor in Nixon's case was that the President _rarely wore a hat of any kind_, thus earning the affectionate nickname, "Tricky Dicky."

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote: ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society
Poster:       Laurence Horn
Subject:      Re: Tight = drunk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 9:54 AM -0400 5/2/07, Charles Doyle wrote:
>The traditional form of the proverbial simile is "queer (odd, crazy)
>as Dick's hatband"--traceable back to the late 18th century in
>England.
>
>--Chalrie
>___________________________________________________________


Here's Evan Morris, as The Word Detective, and indirectly Robert
Hendrickson on both "tight" and "queer" versions of the hatband.
(There are lots of other web references to the same story.)  Any
reason for skepticism?

================
..."tight as Dick's hatband" is primarily a Southern expression here
in the U.S. I say "here in the U.S." because, according to Robert
Hendrickson's "Whistling Dixie, A Dictionary of Southern Expressions"
(Pocket Books, $12.95), the phrase actually originated in Great
Britain. The "Dick" in question was probably Oliver Cromwell's son
Richard (1626-1712), who succeeded his father as ruler of England.
Richard's brief reign, a matter of only seven months ending in his
abdication, made him the object of popular contempt and the butt of
many jokes. The unfortunate Dick's "hatband" was his crown, and the
"tightness" was the discomfort and apprehension he was presumed to
have felt. Variants on the joke at the time included another phrase
sometimes still heard, "queer as Dick's hatband," referring to the
preposterous course of Richard's reign.

"Tight as Dick's hatband" made the leap across the Atlantic and took
up residence in the American South, where, the Cromwell saga being
largely unknown, it was taken as a folk expression denoting extreme
tightness or, sometimes, stinginess. And now, if you'll excuse me, I
have to return something to the store.
===============

I wonder whether "queer as Dick's hatband" might not now occur
occasionally with a new sense, having shifted along with "queer"
itself.

LH

>
>>Wilson Gray  wrote: ----------------------
>>
>>"Tight as Dick's hatband"?! Whoa! Far out, man! That's one of my
>>mother's very favorite catch-phrases. I had no idea that it had
>>anything to do with drunkeness till this moment. She used it only
>>to describe something that was liiterally tight: "The skirt that
>>that young gal had on was as tight as Dick's hatband!" I've never
>>heard it or seen it used by anyone else, either in person or in
>>print, before. Till now, my basic impression had been that this was
>>just some otherwise-unknown, East-Texas piney-woods expression. You
>>never know.
>>
>>-Willson [sic]
>>
>>On 5/1/07, Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
>>>
>>>  "Tight" basically means "drunk," not "tipsy."  "A little tight,"
>>>which seems to be throwing people off, means "a little drunk."
>>>"Kind of tight" means "kind of drunk."  "Tight as a tick," "...a
>>>drum," "...Dick's hat band," etc., mean "very drunk," not "very
>>>tipsy."
>>>
>>>    If I say, "X came in tight," the degree of X's drunkenness goes
>>>unstated, but X is indeed "drunk."
>>>
>>>
>>>    JL
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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