Just as I posted, Morgan was adding three sheets to the wind.
There must be some story behind this one, but off the top of my head I can't see why sheets would have become a metaphor for drunkenness. Can anyone advise?
The word sheet is used in the nautical sense. A sheet to a sailor is a rope used for controlling the sails. If a sheet is left to flutter in the wind, the sail it controls will flap and the boat will lose way. With three sheets to the wind the boat will lose way and be uncontrollable, much like someone who is drunk.
quote:Originally posted by Hic et ubique: Interesting, Stan, that a couple of yours use _pissed_. On our side of the pond, "pissed" is slang for "angry".
Good Grief, I almost made a major faux pas because I didn't know the meaning of "three sheets to the wind". I recently found a charming picture of a sailboat with the inscription "Three Sheets to the Wind". I almost bought it for one of my colleagues with the last name of "Sheets". She probably would have thought that I considered her a "drunk"!!!! I was so sure that arnie was wrong with his definition that I went to word detective, which confirmed for me that arnie was right!
I'm glad the Word Detective got it right. I was interested to learn that:
quote:The specific number of "three sheets" in the phrase wasn't random, by the way -- there was, at one time, a sort of rating system of inebriation among sailors, where "one sheet" meant "tipsy" and so on, up to "four sheets in the wind," meaning to be completely unconscious.
I'd never known that, but it makes sense (something that doesn't often happen with words).
The Callahan's Pub tales I've been reading, as mentioned elsewhere, taught me a new drinking word. One of the characters is a cluricaune, akin to a leprechaun. At his first appearance the bartender speaks:
quote:"I'm sorry to say he's not a leprechaun. It's much worse than that. He's a cluricaune. Leprechauns make shoes."
Brief silence. "What do cluricaunes do?" Doc Webster asked. "Drink." He paled. "Oh, shit." "Hip-deep," I agreed. "A cluricaune," Long-Drink said darkly, "is a walking thirst."
"He's the finish of this place," I told them all. "Unlike many of the Little Folk, a cluricaune will attach himself to a specific place, rather than to a family or clan. And what he does to that place is to drink it dry as an Iranian cabinet meeting -- no matter what God or man may do or try to do to stop him. A cluricaune can suck booze through a stone jug. He can smell sauce in a cesspool. He'll eat fuming Drano if you pour in a few drops of vinegar. I bet you not one purse in this room has any nail polish remover left in it right now."
The cluricaune began to snore--loudly, and fairly disgustingly. He was not a pretty drunk.
"The cluricaune is here," I said. "Our booze is not."
I am forced to conclude that there are as many euphemisms for getting drunk as there are for matters of a sexual nature - and maybe for the same reasons. Most people do it but don't like to admit it too boldly!
Richard English
Posts: 6303 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
quote:Me: Interesting, Stan, that a couple of yours use "pissed". On our side of the pond, "pissed" is slang for "angry". Stan: "Pissed Off" is our equivalent to your "Pissed"
We USn's also use "pissed off", in the same way. With a lesser degree of annoyance is called being "t'd off", short for "ticked off".
