Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Ninety-Nine

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Cup-Shot

The definition for this is short and crisp, it means “drunk”. It’s slightly puzzling how this term fell out of usage, it was used from the mid-fifteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, then other words for drunk (and there are no shortage of them) took over. The term is quite literal as well, ‘cup’ referring to the cup of drink and ‘shot’ referring to the cup being empy.

I have decided though that this is one phrase that I might try and use, and it’ll also show me which of my drunken friends are reading this blog if they look knowledgeable about its meaning….