Being inebriated; and a question

[Jonathan Lighter]

We can't.

I forget what proportion of Streeber's list I was able to document
independently;  it was significant but disappointing.

Much (most?) of which that hadn't been cited by OED in an earlier narrative
context, never appeared again.  (Though ISTR "stew'd" and "cockey'd" as
startling exceptions. If not on Streeber's, they were on one of those
related 18th C. lists.)

Look at this way.  You ask your freshmen to list words and phrases for
"drunk."  The do it and turn them in.  The only reason you asked was that
you thought the list
would be long and funny.  Then you publish whatever they turned in as "The
Drinkers' Dictionary."  There's nothing scientific, rigorous, or even very
lexicographic about. It's just fun.

I've given similar assignments.  The results are a hodgepodge, including, it
always seems, indiosyncratic wisecracks.

I think it would be a mistake simply to assume that these lists of synonyms
are any more methodical than that.  Why would they be?

JL


On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Being inebriated; and a question
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8/17/2009 09:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Haven't checked, but like Joel I doubt it's there - or in the 1722
> version.
>
> I checked "tar" (it's absent in 1736), but no others.  And we all
> know, don't we, that the 1722 version is not the source for the 1736
> version?  :-)
>
> And a question:  In 1940 Edward Seeber counted in Franklin's
> publication "90 expressions (from the entire 228) which are possibly
> not of English usage".  ("Franklin's 'Drinkers Dictionary' Again."
> American Speech Vol. 15, No. 1 (Feb.), 103-105.)  Can we fairly infer
> that he *found* the other 138 in English usage?  I think he was
> silent about that.
>
> Joel
>
>
> >JL
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      Re: Being inebriated
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > It might be interesting to compare the 1771/1770 lists of 80 terms,
> > > from The Providence Gazette and the Gentleman's Magazine, with the
> > > 1736 list of 227 terms that is still erroneously referred to as
> > > Benjamin Franklin's.  There are more than a few in Ben's list I don't
> > > recall from 1736, including "tar on his heel".
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > At 8/16/2009 06:42 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake wrote:
> > >
> > > >I should add that the expression "tar on his heel" was mentioned in
> 1818
> > > as
> > > >a synonym for "inebriated."  This according to an updated list of ways
> to
> > > >say "drunken"; see, for example, *The National Aegis* (Worcester,
> Mass.,
> > > 18
> > > >February 1818, p. 4) and *The Dartmouth Gazette* (Hanover, 4 March
> 1818,
> > > p.
> > > >3), both viewable in the America's Historical Newspapers database.
>  (In
> > > >2004, Ben Zimmer posted a 1771 version of the list, which lacked "tar
> on
> > > his
> > > >heel."  See link far below.)
> > > >
> > > >Of course, it's anyone's guess whether 1840's "we wear tar on our
> heels"
> > > is
> > > >related to 1846's "Tar heels."
> > > >
> > > >-- Bonnie
> > > >
> > > >
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