Philocothonista, or, The drunkard, opened, dissected, and anatomized, by Thomas Heywood, includes a chapter with the following splendid list of approved synonyms:
I come now to the penall Statutes enacted for diverse forfeitures, upon most grave and mature deliberation, No man must call a Good-fellow Drunkard, for that’s a name of reproach and indignity, as quite extermin’d out of their learned Society: But if at any time they spy that defect one in another, they may without any forfeit or iust exceptions taken, say; He is Foxt, Hee is Flaw’d, Hee is Flusterd, Hee is Suttle, Cupshot, Cut in the Leg or Backe, Hee hath seene the French King, He hath swallowed an Haire or a Taverne-Token, Hee hath hipt the Cat, He hath been at the Scriveners and learn’d to make Indentures, Hee hath bit his Grannam, or is bit by a Barne-Weesell, with an hundred such like adages and sentences, extracte out of the most Authentick Authors in their Liberary.
Philocothonista is presumably from κώθων ‘Laconian drinking-vessel.’ (Many thanks to Trevor for the link!)
“He is tired and emotional”
Speaking of languages I don’t understand, can anyone guess what “hipt the Cat” means? OED says “Having the hip injured or dislocated; lamed in the hip; hip-shot”. So, this is something the drunkard is supposed to have done to the cat, because…?
OED also says “Grannam” is meant to be a variant on “Grand-dam”; grandmother.
“Reckon he’s been bit by a barn-weasel” sound like something that a wild west cowboy might say.
Swedish has the lovely expression rund under fötterna (’round under the feet’), evoking that stage of inebriation where walking is suddenly a thing that demands concentration.
Owlmirror
Damn! I was going to go all Private Eye and you ruined it for me! 🙂
Viennese distinguishes three stages that would be angesoffen, zugesoffen, niedergesoffen in Standard German.
English has four stages: jocose, bellicose, lachrymose, comatose.
dizzy and delightful, drunk and disorderly, dead drunk, danger of death.