Phrase: three sheets in the wind (1812) Modern version: three sheets to the wind

[Jonathan Lighter]

Garson beats HDAS by about ten years. Way to go.

I have exx. with two, three, four, and seven sheets "to" or "in" the wind,
though early use prefers "in." "Three" is the usual number.

I found no exx. in ECCO, but the expression seems to have been well known
by the 1820s.

Note that "He's X sheets in the wind" could have meant he *has* as well as
he *is* ....

In Britain I believe it would still be possible to interpret it that way.

JL


On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 4:09 PM, 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: Phrase: three sheets in the wind (1812) Modern version:
> three
>               sheets to the wind
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Do any of the following bear up for (be antecedents of) "three sheets"?
>
> He's got his Top Gallant Sails out
> He carries too much Sail
> He's right before the Wind with all his Studding Sails out
>
> 1736 New England Weekly Journal, July 6.  (Six months before Ben
> Franklin's "Drinkers Dictionary" in the Pennsylvania Gazette.)
>
> Joel
>
> At 4/16/2014 12:06 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>
> >three sheets to the wind
> >three sheets in the wind
> >
> >Michael Quinion examined these phrases at World Wide Words:
> >Three sheets in the wind
> >http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-thr1.htm
> >
> >A Way with Words covered the topic.
> >Three Sheets to the Wind, Grant Barrett, Aug 25, 2012
> >http://www.waywordradio.org/three-sheets-to-the-wind/
> >
> >I did not see any relevant messages in the ADS mailing list archive.
> >
> >Oxford English Dictionary includes the phrase in two locations with a
> >first citation in 1821.
> >
> >wind, n.1
> >  IV. Phrases with prepositions.
> >   21. in the wind.
> >    g. Naut. slang (predicatively). Intoxicated; the worse for liquor:
> >usually with qualification, esp. three sheets in the wind. (Cf. all in
> >the wind at sense 21a(b).)
> >
> >sheet, n.2
> >  2. three sheets in the wind: very drunk. a sheet in the wind
> >(similarly a sheet in the wind's eye at eye n.1 Phrases 4h(b)) is used
> >occas. = half drunk.
> >
> >OED cite: 1821 Egan Real Life i. xviii. 385   Old Wax and Bristles is
> >about three sheets in the wind.
> >
> >I received a request to trace the expression. Since it is not a
> >quotation it is not really within my bailiwick, but a quick look in GB
> >found a citation in 1812. Maybe JL has a better cite.
> >
> >[ref] 1812 May 2, The Weekly Register, Travellers in America, Quote
> >Page 143, Printed and published by H. Niles. (Google Books Full View)
> >link [/ref]
> >
> >
> http://books.google.com/books?id=LZE-AAAAYAAJ&q=%22sheets+in%22#v=snippet&
> >
> >[Begin excerpt]
> >It must not be wondered at that the poor, untutored, savage
> >Kentuckyan, got "more than two thirds drunk," that is, as the sailors
> >term it, three sheets in the wind, and the fourth shivering, before
> >the dinner was ended, upon a liquor which this great man found
> >excellent.
> >[End excerpt]
> >
> >The GB match in "History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest"
> >is really dated 1890 and not 1800. The GB match in "Journal of Rev.
> >Francis Asbury" is dated September 26, 1813.
> >
> >Garson
> >
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