The Drinker's Dictionary is a list of 228 "round-about phrases" to describe drunkenness. It was published January 6, 1737 (1736

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

) in ''

The Pennsylvania Gazette ''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' was one of the United States' most prominent newspapers from 1728 until 1800. In the several years leading up to the American Revolution the paper served as a voice for colonial opposition to British colonial rule, ...

''. The ''Pennsylvania Gazette'' publication is attributed to

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

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. 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.

References

Bibliography

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

External links

Internet Archive text of the ''Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin''
1737 books English dictionaries Works by Benjamin Franklin {{drink-stub