P.S. A Column On Things

By PAUL E. SCHINDLER JR. I am from Portland, Oregon, Beaumont ’66, Benson High ’70, MIT ’74. Some things are impossible to know, but it is impossible to know these things.

Drunkonyms

March 1, 2026

On LinkedIn, Nicky Mee noted you could turn any word into a synonym for drunk if you add “ed.”

This complements 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…’

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.

Drunkonyms are often achieved through their indirectness. For example, “gazeboed” and “carparked” are funny because there is no direct relation between the base word and the meaning drunk.

Posted at 9:10 pm Permalink 1 Comment

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In French, the word "plein" means both pregnant and drunk, depending on context.

Posted by: Clark Robert SmithMarch 02, 2026 at 08:09 PM

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Paul E. Schindler Jr.

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