List No. 010

THE LEXICON OF PROHIBITION

Edmund Wilson

1927

In 1927, almost 200 years after Benjamin Franklin published The Drinker’s Dictionary (see List No. 009), American literary critic Edmund Wilson followed suit by printing The Lexicon of Prohibition, a list of terms for drunkenness, arranged, he explained, “in order of the degrees of intensity of the conditions which they represent, beginning with the mildest stages and progressing to the more serious”.

lit squiffy oiled lubricated owled edged jingled piffed piped sloppy woozy happy half-screwe half-cooked half-shot half seas over fried stewed boiled zozzled sprung scrooched jazzed jagged canned corked corned potted hooted slopped tanked stinko blind stiff under the table tight full wet high horseback liquored pickled ginned shicker (Yiddish) spifflicated primed organized featured pie-eyed cock-eyed wall-eyed glassy-eyed bleary-eyed

hoary-eyed over the Bay four sheets in the wind crocked loaded leaping screeching lathered plastered soused bloated polluted saturated full as a tick loaded for bear loaded to the muzzle loaded to the plimsoll mark wapsed down paralyzed ossifed out like a light passed out cold embalmed buried blotto lit up like the sky lit up like the Commonwealth lit up like a Christmas tree lit up like a store window lit up like a church fried to the hat slopped to the ears stewed to the gills boiled as an owl to have a bun on to have a slant on to have a skate on to have a snootfull to have a skinful to draw a blank to pull a shut-eye to pull a Daniel Boone to have a rubber drink to have a hangover to have a head to have the jumps to have the shakes to have the zings to have the heeby-jeebies to have the screaming-meemies to have the whoops and jingles to burn with a low blue flame

Some of these, such as loaded and full, are a little old-fashioned now; but they are still understood. Others, such as cock-eyed and oiled, which are included in the Drinker’s Dictionary complied by Benjamin Franklin (and containing two hundred and twenty-eight terms) seem to be enjoying a new popularity. It is interesting to note that one hears nowadays comparatively rarely of people going on sprees, toots, tears, jags, bats, brannigans or benders. All these terms suggest, not merely extreme drunkenness, but also an exceptional occurrence, a violent breaking away by the drinker from the conditions for his normal life. It is possible that their partial disappearance is to be accounted for by the fact that this kind of fierce protracted drinking has now become universal, a familiar feature of social life, instead of a disreputable escapade. On the other hand, the vocabulary of social drinking, as exemplified by the above list, seems to have become particularly rich: one gets the impression that more nuances are nowadays discriminated than was the case before prohibition. Thus, fried, stewed and boiled all convey distinctly different ideas; and cock-eyed, plastered, owled, embalmed and ossified bring into play quite different images. Wapsed down is a rural expression, also used in connection with crops which have been ruined by a storm; featured is a theatrical word, which applies to a stage at which the drinker is stimulated to be believe strongly in his ability to sing a song, to tell a funny story or to execute a dance; organized is properly applied to a condition of thorough preparation for the efficient conduct of a formidable evening; and blotto, of English origin, denotes a condition of bland unconsciousness.