It was the unlikely setting of the US Senate Judiciary last week which has sparked considerable debate on what constitutes drunkenness. There were references to a "stumbling drunk", a "sloppy drunk", a "slurring drunk" and a "belligerent drunk". But there seems to be a certain lack of creativeness in these descriptions. Perhaps a little European influence would liven things up a bit.
A few years ago, the BBC held a survey on euphemisms for getting drunk. The survey threw up, if that's the appropriate term, 141 different expressions commonly used in Britain alone for the act of drunkenness, and one suspects there are plenty more.
Here are a few most people are familiar with: "legless", "bladdered", "plastered", "pickled", "hammered", "sloshed", "sozzled" and the rather quaint "blotto". Londoners of course are aware of the Cockney rhyming slang "Brahms and Liszt" (pissed). The more respectable English newspapers may settle for describing a drunk as "tired and emotional", if only to escape a libel suit.
