In his cups

Posted by Baceseras on September 12, 2009 at 20:41

In Reply to: In his cups posted by Smokey Stover on September 12, 2009 at 03:35:

: : Would a working class Victorian era Londoner be likely to use the phrase "in his cups" to describe an intoxicated person? If not, what are some likely euphemisms that would be so used?

:
: That some members of the working class knew the phrase you can be sure. From the King James translation of the Bible we have: "1611 BIBLE 1 Esdras iii. 22 And when they are in their cups, they forget their loue both to friends and brethren." The Oxford English Dictionary has cited, in addition to this example, two others going back to 1406 in which the exact wording is a bit different Whatever gaps there may have been in the vocabulary of most working stiffs, surely some of them were familiar with the Bible, and it would be a mistake to think that working people rarely read popular literature of the day, in which such a common cliché as this was bound to turn up

: However, "in his cups" does sound rather literary, so it would be useful to know some of the popular colloquialisms of the day with the same meaning I'm sure the Brits who inhabit this site will provide some useful information.
: SS

[It may be helpful to recall that Victoria reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901 - some sixty-five years - and the amount of slang to have come and gone out again in that period must have been prodigious. - Bac.]