Foosty Puddin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Jul 29, 2023

In Scotland, for some unaccountable reason, we have many words meaning "drunk" including bleized, bluitert, bladdered, bungfu, chackit, fleein, fou, fuddelt, hammered, jaked, mingin, rairie, reekin, stottin, stotious, stovin and many more. But one, "steamin", has an interesting origin.

In 1841, a law was passed in Scotland limiting the sale of #alcohol in an attempt to curb the growing issues of alcoholism. The law stated that only a "bona fide'" traveller could purchase alcohol on a Sunday for their "comfort".

Two weeks after the law was passed, pleasure steamers began the first Clyde Cruises on a Sunday where it was possible to partake of strong #beer and #whisky. The original "booze cruise".

"Steamin", meaning drunk, enters the vocabulary.

This is a photo of "Waverley", the world's last seagoing paddle steamer, as she's steamin down the Kyes of Bute.

#Scotland #Glasgow #Clyde #boat #steamer #drunk

Show threadGeorge MitchellJul 29, 2023

@djl The US has “blitzed” as a word meaning “drunk”; I wonder if “bleized” is related, and which direction the transfer went?

(That was “here’s an interesting (to me) thing, does anybody know off the top of their head?”, not “please go do a bunch of research to satisfy the curiosity of my lazy ass.”)

Show threadFoosty Puddin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
@gemitch Yes "blitzed" is used here as well. Not sure but perhaps more to do with wartime "blitz" as in being wrecked or ruined -both of which are also used to mean inebriated 😀
Jul 29, 2023 at 8:30pmWeb
Show threadGeorge MitchellJul 29, 2023

@djl Yeah, I always figured (with no actual factual support) it derived from WWII usage. :) But if y’all use ‘blitzed’ as well, probably the link to ‘bleized’ is more tenuous.

Thanks!