The Drinker's Dictionary

The Drinker's Dictionary is a list of 228 "round-about phrases" to describe drunkenness. It was published on January 6,^[1] 1737 (1736 Old Style) in The Pennsylvania Gazette.^[2][3] The Pennsylvania Gazette publication is attributed to Benjamin Franklin 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.^[4] 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.^[5]