- Britons have 546 different words for “drunk”, researchers say
- Almost any word can be used to mean drunk as long as it ends with ‘-ed’.
If you’ve ever felt “overlooked,” “parked,” or completely “stuck” after a night out, this may not surprise you.
Linguistic researchers have discovered that virtually any noun can be transformed into a ‘drunk’ (synonymous with intoxicated) simply by adding ‘ed’ to the end.
The study found that we have a staggering 546 words that are formally defined as meaning drunk, including “trolleyed,” “hammered,” “wellied” and “steampigged.”
It confirms a theory first suggested by comedian Michael McIntyre, who said Brits could understand any word to mean drunk if it was preceded by “I’m completely…”
Professor Christina Sánchez-Stockhammer, of the University of Chemnitz in Germany, believes it may be due to Britain’s deeply ingrained culture of social drinking and Monty Python-style absurdist humour.
Researchers have discovered that Britons have 546 words for drunk and that you can use almost any word as long as it ends with “-ed” (file image)
She said: “In English, there are an extremely large number of words that can mean drunk, and more can be formed by simply adding ‘ed’ to the end.
‘It means that virtually any word in Britain can inherit the meaning “drunk” automatically from the context.
‘This humorous modification of words is only possible because of the way sentences are constructed in English and because the British really like clever wordplay. For example, in German it wouldn’t work.’
He said the funny effect of drunks is often achieved through its indirectness, adding: “For example, ‘gazeboed’ and ‘carparked’ are funny because there is no direct relationship between the base word and the meaning ‘drunk.'” ‘”.
Professor Sánchez-Stockhammer said indirection is also present in other types of playful language, such as Cockney rhyming slang, which includes drunks like ‘Brahms’ and ‘Schindler’s’, short for ‘Brahms and Liszt’ and ‘The List of Schindler’, which rhymes with ‘pi**ed’.
If you’ve ever felt “overlooked,” “parked,” or completely “stuck” after a night out, this may not surprise you. Linguistic researchers have discovered that practically any noun can be transformed into a ‘drunk’ (synonymous with intoxicated) simply by adding ‘ed’ to the end (file image)
He added: ‘We studied for a year in Britain and witnessed British culture first-hand. The drunks fit well with the British humorous view on drinking and life in general.’
The study, published in the Yearbook of the German Association for Cognitive Linguistics, found that English speakers regularly use a variety of alternative words for “drunk.”
By the time Britons reach adulthood, most will have experienced so many different drunken binges that they will be able to recognize even unfamiliar words ending in “ed” as “drunk” in many contexts.
Although excessive alcohol consumption can have negative consequences, Britons often talk about drunkenness in a light-hearted way, the researchers added.