"Drunk." For some reason there are almost 50 synonyms for that word -- more than I have ever seen for any other when I use a thesaurus. Why is that? B and I were having a laugh in the car the other day, trying to think of as many as we could, but didn't quite hit 50, although we did come up with many not suggested by the thesaurus. Here they are:
dead drunk
drunk as a lord
blotto
smashed
sh-t-faced
(well) oiled
plastered
sloshed
bombed
blasted
pie-eyed (my late Aunt Pat's favourite)
trashed
ploughed
feeling no pain
tidley
blitzed
tanked
stoned (high-jacked by the drug culture)
wrecked
zonked
ripped
legless (new to me)
under the influence
three sheets to the wind
one over the eight (also new to me)
inebriated
intoxicated
loaded
stewed
soused
crocked
cranked
buzzed
lit (up)
liquored (up)
pickled
high
tight
in the bag
tipsy
boiled
gassed
gunned
pissed
whacked
over-refreshed (love that one, originated in "Frank" magazine)
feeling no pain
out of it
pinned, and
canned
For the moment, that's all I can come up with, but I am sure there are many more. Linguistically, I can't figure out why there are so many? I wonder if other languages have as many? I know in French, the expression "J'ai pris une brosse" means "I got drunk". It translates literally as "I took a brush" -- guess that refers to how the head feels after over-imbibing.
The social stigma attached to being "drunk" may be the reason we use so many other words to describe the condition.
What can I tell you? Bizarre things such as this with language facinate me.
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Another oddity is that swear words differ greatly culture to culture. In English, they are body parts and bodily functions; in French, they are mainly religious; in latin countries they refer to mothers and sisters. Not sure about other languages and cultures, time to do a little research on the topic.
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