A study has found an astonishing 546 words that are formally defined as meaning drunk, including 'trolleyed', 'hammered', 'wellied' and 'steampigged'.
Linguistic researchers have discovered that virtually any noun can be transformed into a 'drunkonym' – a synonym for intoxicated – simply by adding 'ed' at the end.
It confirms a theory first suggested by comedian Michael McIntyre, who said Britons could understand any word as meaning drunk if it is preceded by 'I got completely...'
If you've ever felt 'gazeboed', 'carparked' or completely 'cabbaged' after a night out, this may come as no surprise.
Professor Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, of Chemnitz University in Germany, believes it may be due to Britain's deeply-rooted culture of social drinking and Monty Python-style absurdist humour.
Researchers have found that Britons have 546 words for drunk and that almost any word can be used so long as it ends with an '-ed' (stock image)
She said: 'In English, there's an extremely large number of words that can mean drunk, and more can be formed simply by adding 'ed' to the end.
'It means pretty much any word in Britain can inherit the meaning "drunk" automatically from the context.
'This humorous modifying of words is only possible because of the way sentences are constructed in English, and because the British really enjoy witty wordplay. For example, it would not work in German.'
She said the funny effect of drunkonyms is often achieved through their indirectness, adding: 'For example, "gazeboed" and "carparked" are funny because there is no direct relation between the base word and the meaning "drunk".'
Prof Sanchez-Stockhammer said indirectness is also present in other types of playful language, such as Cockney rhyming slang, which includes drunkonyms like 'Brahms' and 'Schindler's' – short for 'Brahms and Liszt' and 'Schindler's list', both of which rhyme with 'pi**ed'.
If you've ever felt 'gazeboed', 'carparked' or completely 'cabbaged' after a night out, this may come as no surprise. Linguistic researchers have discovered that virtually any noun can be transformed into a 'drunkonym' – a synonym for intoxicated – simply by adding 'ed' at the end (stock image)
She added: 'We studied for a year in Great Britain and witnessed British culture first-hand. Drunkonyms fit in well with the humourous British outlook on drinking and life in general.'
The study, published in the Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, found that English speakers regularly use a range of alternative words for 'drunk'.
By the time Britons reach adulthood, most will have experienced so many different drunkonyms that it allows them to recognise even unknown words ending in 'ed' as meaning 'drunk' in many contexts.
Even though excessive alcohol consumption may come with negative consequences, Britons commonly discuss drunkenness in a light-hearted way, the researchers added.
Explaining the list, Sanchez-Stockhammer said: 'The following list combines material from the Oxford English Dictionary, Collins Dictionary’s thesaurus, Wiktionary’s thesaurus as well as synonyms for drunk collected by the audience of BBC One’s Booze programme.
The list is sorted, first in descending order by the number of resources in which the word occurs (indicated by a figure between 1 and 4 in parentheses), and then alphabetically within each frequency group.”
The 546 words for drunk
Researchers have found that Britons have over 500 different word that we can use to mean 'drunk.
They discovered that almost any word can be used to mean drunk so long as it ends in '-ed' and follows an adverb like 'very', 'totaly', or 'absolutley'
For example: 'I was totally gazeboed last night'.
Here is the full list:
bladdered
inebriated
intoxicated
langered
legless
mashed
merry
mullered
pickled
pie-eyed
plastered
sloshed
smashed
tipsy
trashed
wasted
bevvied
blasted
blitzed
blootered
blotto
bombed
cabbaged
canned
fuddled
hammered
langers
lashed
loaded
ossified
paralytic
p*****
rat-arsed
ratted
screwed
slaughtered
sozzled
squiffy
steaming
stewed
stoned
tanked
tiddly
tight
well-oiled
wrecked
zonked
Adrian Quist
a********
beered-up
besotted
blocked
blottoed
blue
bollocksed
bottled
buzzed
clobbered
c*****
cockeyed
corned
corny
crocked
c*****
cup-shot
cut
disguised
ebriose
ebrious
elevated
faced
fap
flustered
fluthered
fou
fresh
fried
f*****
full
gassed
ginned
glorious
gone
groggy
high
honkers
inebriate
jolly
juiced
kaylied
lamped
leathered
liquored up
lit
locked
looped
lubricated
lushy
maudlin
mellow
minging
m*****
moppy
mortal
muddy
munted
nappy
obfuscated
obliterated
oiled
owly-eyed
parlatic
peloothered
pixilated
ploughed
polluted
potted
potulent
puggled
razzled
ree
ripe
ripped
rubbered
sauced
scammered
schnockered
screwy
scuttered
shedded
shicker
shickered
skunked
slewed
snockered
snuffy
soaked
soaken
sottish
spannered
spiffed
sprung
squiffed
steamboats
stinking
stinko
stocious
stonkered
strut
swacked
swipey
tanked up
temulent
tiddled
tippled
top-heavy
trollied
trousered
t*****
twisted
w*******
wazzed
wellied
wet
zoned
adrip
airlocked
ale-blown
alecied
ale-washed
ankled
annihilated
askew
babalas
bacchic
badgered
baked
banjaxed
barley-sick
battered
beery
befuddled
befuggered
beliquored
bent
Bernard Langered
besotten
bibacious
bibulous
bingoed
bitch fou
blathered
blatted
bleezin
blind
blocked-up
blown away
blucked
bluttered
boiled
bonkers
boogaloo
boozed
boozed-up
boozy
bosky
bousy
Brahms
broken
buffy
bumpsy
bungalowed
bungfu
burlin
burlin’
caned
cap-sick
chevy chased
clear
cocktailed
columbered
confuddled
cooked
crapulous
cup-shotten
dagged
dead-oh
decimated
destroyed
dot cottoned
drink-drowned
drinky
dronkverdriet
druck-steaming
ebriate
ebriated
elephants
elephant’s
elephant’s trunk
etched
fairish
falling-down
far gone
fecked
fershnickered
fighting-tight
flashy
fleemered
flooey
floored
fluffy
flush
flushed
fluted
fly-blown
flying
foggy
footless
foxed
frosted
fu’
fubar
FUBARed
f***** up
f*****-up
f******* up
f***faced
funked up
funny
fuzzy-headed
fuzzy-minded
gatted
gattered
gee-eyed
genevered
gesuip
gished
goat
goosed
grogged
groggified
guttered
half channelled over
half cut
half lit
half polluted
half seas over
half-and-half
half-cocked
half-cut
half-seas-over
half-shaved
half-shot
hamboned
hammer-blowed
happy
hazed
heady
hearty
high-flown
hooched up
hosed
hot
howling
impaired
incapable
inebrious
insober
insobrietous
intoxicate
jagged
jahalered
jaiked up
jaked
Jan Hammered
Jan’d
Jaxied
jazzed
Jeremied
jingled
jug-bitten
juiced up
junked-up
Kaned
kisky
kylied
lagered up
lagged up
langerated
laroped
larruped
larrupt
lash
liquefied
liquory
lit up
lit-up
loo la
loopy
loose
lumpy
lushed
maggot
maggoted
mandoo-ed
mangled
manky
Maudlin-cupped
mauled
mazed-headed
medicated
meff’d
Merl Haggard
messed up
mettled
minced
ming-ho
miraculous
mizzled
moccasined
moired
mokus
molo
monkey-full
moon-eyed
moony
motherless
mottled
muddled
muggy
muntered
mused
mustulent
muzzy
nase
nazzy
near
newcastled
newted
nicely
obliviated
oiled-up
Oliver
Oliver Twist
orey-eyed
overcome
overrefreshed
overseen
overshot
overtaken
paggered
paid
palintoshed
para
paraletic
paralysed
paralyzed
parro
peelywally
peevied
pepst
pifflicated
pinko
piped
pipped
p*****
pissy-arsed
plonked
plotzed
plowed
poleaxed
pollatic
potable
pot-shaken
pot-shot
pot-shotten
pot-sick
pot-valiant
pounded
primed
queer
quisby
raddled
rat-legged
ravaged
reek-ho
reeling ripe
rendered
rocky
rolling
rosined
rosy
rosy glow
rotten
rotto
rouzy-bouzy
ruined
rummy
sat
scattered
schickered
Schindlers
schloshed
schnookered
scratched
semi-bousy
sewed up
shaved
shellaced
shellacked
sherry
s***faced
s****-faced
s***housed
s*****
shot
shwasted
skimished
slammed
slap-happy
slarmied
slued
slug-nutty
snatered
snobbled
snookered
snozzled
sodden
soft
sotted
souped-up
soused
sozzly
spanceled
spancelled
spangeled
speechless
spiflicated
splashed
spongelled
spongy
spreeish
squizzed
steamed
steamin
steampigged
stiff
stoated
stonkin
stotious
stukkend
stung
stunned
swizzled
tap-shackled
tashered
temulentive
throwed
tightish
tilted
tin hat
tin hats
tipsified
toasted
toddied
top-heavyish
toping
toppy
tore up
tosie
touched
tow-row
toxic
tozy-mozy
trolleyed
troubled
tuned
t***faced
used up
warped
wastey
wazzocked
well-corned
well-cornered
well-liquored
well-sprung
whiffled
whift
whiskeyfied
whiskified
whiskyfied
whistled
whittled
whole-seas
whole-seas over
wineful
wine-sprung
wiped
withered
wobbly
woozy
zigzag
zombied
zooted
zorched
zotzed