The Drinker's Dictionary

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Drinker's Dictionary is a list of 228 "round-about phrases" to describe

drunkenness. It was published on January 6,[1] 1737 (1736 Old Style) in The Pennsylvania Gazette.[2][3] The Pennsylvania Gazette publication is attributed to Benjamin Franklin and appears in his memoirs; however, a very similar wordlist appears in the New England Weekly Journal on July 6, 1736, and differences between the two suggest earlier origins by a different author.[4] Franklin deemed drunkenness as a vice that could never be a virtue, so various terms and phrases were created to mask the inappropriateness of the act.[5]

References

Bibliography

  • Franklin, Benjamin, Franklin, William Temple, Duane, William, Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, volume 2, New York: Derby & Jackson (1859), p. 496.

External links