gripe

[Jonathan Lighter]

It does. _Pissed up_  'drunk' is rather more frequent in the U.S. than
BrE _pissed_.

JL

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Subject:      Re: gripe
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does it ever piss down with rain in America the way it does here?
>
> Robin
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Victor Steinbok" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:08 AM
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: gripe
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: gripe
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >  Both "pissed" and "pissed off" are attested in AmE and I would judge
> > them widespread (I've heard both versions pretty much everywhere I've
> > been--and they are both even picked up by foreign English speakers,
> > e.g., the Dutch who've never been in the US). There might be some
> > distributional difference--e.g., I suspect, "pissed" has a slightly
> > narrower context, such as "I am pissed" or "This got me pissed", but not
> > "?I got pissed about Alan's promotion." (To my ear, "pissed off" would
> > be measurably better here.) Most of the time, however, they are
> > semi-interchangeable.
> >
> > I have never heard "pissed"==drunk in the US outside of British TV shows
> > (or English characters in films). But "get piss drunk" is quite
> > common--at least among the Boston Irish-American contingent. Then, of
> > course, there is the indignity of being "piss poor", but, I suspect,
> > that flies on either side of the Atlantic.
> >
> >     VS-)
>
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