Completely carparked: Study finds 546 words for getting 'drunk' in the English language
Amber Louise Bryce
If there's one thing Brits are good at, it's getting totally trolleyed - and expressing it in endlessly creative ways.
Once the subject of a Michael McIntyre stand-up routine, in which the comedian argued that posh people can use any word to mean drunk in English, two German linguists took it upon themselves to research its truth.
“We were curious to find out if the synonyms of “drunk” are used in similar contexts,” explained the study's co-author Professor Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer of Chemnitz University in a press release.
The findings, published in the Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, found that Brits do indeed use a vast variety of synonyms to describe being drunk - 546, to be exact.
These so-called ' drunkonyms' range from ' hammered' to ' bladdered' to 'sozzled' to 'steampigged'; proving that any word in the English language can be turned into a descriptive for having downed one too many - with the addition of 'ed' at the end.
Despite the headache-inducing realities of excessive alcohol consumption and its negative associations, it's most often described by Brits with light-heartedness and humour.
"What I found very interesting is that if you look at these words that are used for being drunk, many of them use indirectness as a resource. Like, 'I was totally gazeboed'. I mean, what's the relation between a gazebo and being drunk? It's at least not immediately obvious," Professor SanchezStockhammer tells Euronews Culture.
"As humans, we can usually find some way of interpreting this. For example, that possibly people would get drunk in gazebos? But I don't know to what extent that is true. To normal listeners, the relation will be unclear. And that's what makes it funny."
Such indirectness also lends itself to the spirited sensibilities of Cockney rhyming slang, with examples of 'Brahms and Liszt' or 'Scotch mist' being used to describe being pi**ed.
Cockney and the King's English accents no longer predominate in London
"Probably we shouldn't have said that these are synonyms of 'drunk' but they're actually synonyms of 'pi**ed'," says Professor Sanchez-Stockhammer, explaining that the majority of these 'drunkonyms' are formed according to the same rhythmic pattern.
The researchers also found that there's a tendency for Brits to delete words, with ' blind drunk' and 'nicely drunk' being shortened solely to their prefacers 'blind' and 'nicely', something not so easily done in other languages where you have inflections, SanchezStockhammer notes.
"In British English, at least, there's quite a lot of emphasis on the fun part. And I think that's why there's such a lot of variation, because you want to come up with something new and creative."
How do other European languages express getting drunk?
The UK's deep-seated drinking culture paired with Brits' love of wordplay and absurdist humour are strongly linked to the neverending list of drunken descriptors. But what about other languages across Europe?
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While not as common (or anywhere near as expansive), Professor Sanchez-Stockhammer did find that similar be found.
"In French, for example, there's the word bourré, which means that you're filled to the brim, that you're stuffed with something. The idea here is a similar one to various English drunken names as well; this idea of having reached the maximum in filling. And in Spanish, I found machácalo [meaning 'to crush']. These are the two that felt most familiar from the ones I saw, like in English where you also have destroyed, hammered, etc... So basically, alcohol doing something to your body."
While researching online for expressions of drunkenness in other languages, the following evocative examples appeared in a Reddit thread. Most are more direct than those in the English language, and in general have a certain poetry that you'll never quite find in a pale-faced Brit telling you how utterly wa**ered they got on the 24-1 pitchers in a Wetherspoons last night.
Finland
'Seitinohut'. Translating to something that is 'web or silk thin', it can be used as a descriptor for 'drunkonyms' can
those early stages of being tipsy, when the effects of alcohol start to settle and the world around you seemingly becomes covered in a "thin veil of euphoria", a Redditor writes.
Sweden
'Rund under fötterna'. Meaning 'round underfoot' this phrase refers to feeling unsteady, like you're walking on two wobbly balls after overdoing it on the brännvin.
Germany
'Feuchtfröhlich' means 'merry' but also literally translates to 'moist happy', which speaks for itself really.
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, most expressions of drunkenness are introduced with 'zo zat als een', meaning 'as drunk as a'. The examples are endless and all equally bizarre, ranging from a kachel (stove) to a pad (toad) to a kartouw (cart rope) to a straaljager (jetfighter). Essentially, in the Netherlands you can be as drunk as anything you want to be. Poland
'W trupa', which translates to 'into a dead body' - something we've all felt while hungover especially.
Spain
'Estar como una cuba' or to be 'as drunk as a lord' is pretty selfexplanatory although it's not for us to cast aspersions on the high and mighty with titles. Alternatively, you could cause much amusement among Spaniards by describing your drinking exploits as 'estar como una mecedora'. This one translates 'to be like rocking chair', presumably referring to the point at which so much alcohol has been consumed, the room appears to start moving back and forth - or the motion some of us make while impatiently awaiting an order of post-night out junk food.
nology’s changed so rapidly and exhaustedly, that in a sense the only thing you can really hold onto is the individual voice. The individual voice, I must say, can express itself on TikTok or can express itself on a four-hour film or a two-hour miniseries.”
“I don’t think we should let the technology scare us,” he concludes. “Don’t become a slave to the technology - let us control the technology and put it in the right direction. The right direction being from the individual voice, rather than something that is just consumed and tossed away.”
Then comes the highlight the press conference.
A 21-year-old Bulgarian journalist brazenly takes a break from asking a question to the legendary of director by showing a prop he printed out - the scene from The Departed when Jack Nicholson shouts “This isn’t reality TV” - and saying that he can do a great impression of Nicholson.
He then proceeds to re-enact the scene - shouting and all.
I’m serious. Marty is being a sport about it, while Chatrian looks amused now, but couldn't hide the fact that he was dying inside a few seconds ago.
It’s a glorious train crash, as the impression is about as convincing as Ray Charles auditioning for sniper school. But fair play to the young fan. I did not have that chutzpah at his age.
“I can’t believe I’m speaking to Martin Scorsese...” starts one question.
One half of my brain turns off immediately. You’re not speaking with Martin Scorsese - you’re supposed to be asking him a semi-coherent question, and holding the rest of us hostage.
Asked about his favourite 30second moment, Scorsese jokes, “You mean in cinema?”
Cue more rapturous laughing, and I can’t deny I’ve checked out by this point.
Before the press conference ends, Marty does give an update on his upcoming Jesus film, the tentatively titled A Life of Jesus.
“I’m contemplating it right now. What kind of film I’m not quite sure, but I want to make something unique and different that could be thought-provoking and I hope also entertaining. I’m not quite sure yet how to go about it,” he says
“The possibilities of making a film, the concept of Jesus, the idea of Jesus really stems from my background growing up in the Lower East Side, my interest in Catholicism, in the priesthood, which really led I think, ultimately to the film Silence.”
And then it all ends, and I’m left with the feeling that this encounter has not changed my life.
Clocking in at 35 minutes long, I can’t help but feel that at least some of the questions at these things should be screened in advance. Scorsese’s answers were terrific - the questions, much less so.
My queuing friend tells me afterwards that his neighbour left early, deeming the questions to be “too damn fucking stupid” to stick around for.
That’s fair. The bar is low. It usually always is.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Fabien Barthez from the queue was sitting on the same row as me, with a less impressive corner sightline. This isn't a "in the end I had the last laugh" - just a reminder that no matter how seriously and passionately you take things, be kind to others and stay polite.
And watch international films. Whether it’s Kurosawa or whoever, cinema is an empathy machine, and Marty’s right - it could change lives. At the end of the day, no matter how predictably sycophantic the press conferences are, festivals like the Berlinale are what it’s all about - communicating through art, broadening horizons through films, and maybe - just maybe - changing a few lives along the way.