gripe

[Victor Steinbok]

  I'll defer to the gurus, but, it seems, AmE "pissed" is a truncation
of "pissed off".

But if you really want to go to the well, try looking up "pissing
vinegar", which has at least one strongly positive and one strongly
negative connotation. To top it off, there is a number of claims that
"pissing vinegar" has been improperly derived (eggcorn-style, I suppose)
from "piss and vinegar"--good luck untangling that one!

     VS-)

On 10/18/2010 7:47 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>> It does. _Pissed up_  'drunk' is rather more frequent in the U.S. than
>> BrE _pissed_.
>>
>> JL
> Ah, now that I *hadn't known.
>
> So UK has (basic) "pissed"=drunk, qualified to give "pissed off"=annoyed.
> And US has (basic) "pissed"=annoyed, qualified to give "pissed up"=drunk.
>
> Then there's (UK) "been on the piss" meaning having been out and the drink
> taken, or as it would be said in the Real World, "oot oan a bevy".
>
> Innerestin
>
> Robin

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