for Drunk

Intoxication is no simple matter in Scotland. Stagesor degrees of drunkenness are acknowledged even by our courts,where defences such as 'Ah, wiz fu, but no that fu' or 'my clienthad taken only a slight refreshment' are familiar, and havesucceeded. The best study of the degrees of drunkenness we haveencountered comes from William Grant Stewart, who lived inTomintoul in the 1820s. In later life, he recalled theobservations of 'a late ingenious Highland physician', whodivided drunkenness into three stages: 'Blythe', 'Bosky' and'Borajo'.

"Under the influence of the first bottle of whisky, theblythe stage of excitement begins with an increase of heat,muscular strength and accelerated circulation; animatedcountenance; vivid powers of imagination, and an easy flow of witand humour... Daily cares are left behind... And now and anon isheard a Gaelic song. "As the drinking continues [with bottlenumber 2], the party verges on intoxication. Repetition oftoasts; the vacant laugh and incoherent exclamation, mingled withemphatic oaths, perpetually burst upon the ear of the auditory.Noise and ribaldry usurp the place of mirth. It is at this stagethat quarrelling and fighting generally take place. Construingsome casual remark as an insult, a violent collie-shangie oraltercation ensues.

This is the 'Bosky' stage . . .

"[With bottle number 3] all excessive excitement isfollowed by a corresponding collapse, the operators by degreessink into a state of lethargy, or at best their exclamations areincoherent and confused, muttering unintelligible soliloquies;these subsiding efforts of the imagination soon subsiding into astate of profound somnolence, accompanied by snoring orstertorous sound.

"The drinker is now in the third or 'Borajo' state, orwhat is commonly called 'dead drunk'"

In modern demotic parlance, the 'Blythe' stage would usuallybe referred to as 'fu', where the drinker is seen as a containerof finite capacity beyond which the contents are likely to spill.This is similar to the English expression 'tanked up'. 'Pished'is another familiar descriptive term (interesting to speculatewhat it describes); some districts vary this with 'bladdered' -as in 'pure bladdered'. The more common expression, 'blootered'(with its variant 'plootered'), derives from kicking a football.

'Miraculous' (pronounced in Glasgow 'marockyoolus' andsometimes abbreviated to 'maroc' or 'pure maroc') is a joyfuldescription of the Blythe condition and state of mind.

Then there is 'steamin', also 'steamboats' (as in 'he wuzsteamboats'); perhaps a reference to the increased body heatreferred to above. This gives rise to a 'steamer' (i.e. adrinking bout) and 'reekin', or the more obscure 'lummed up'('lum', or course being a chimney, which 'reeks', steams orsmokes).

'Fleein' (i.e. 'flying') is clearly within the happy or livelystage, as is 'hauf-scooped' (curiously, the term 'scooped', i.e.'fully scooped', is unknown), while 'stoatin' (staggering,literally 'bouncing') and its interesting derivative 'stotious'might indicate a transition to the 'Bosky' condition.

Here we encounter a clutch of expressions which graphicallydepict the reveller as 'birlin' (i.e. 'spinning'), 'wellied','skooshed', 'bazooka'd', 'blitzed', 'numb', 'wastit' or plain'riddiculous'. 'Guttered' - a jocular reference to falling downin or having to crawl home via the gutter - may be seen as thetransition to the final, 'Borajo' stage of drunkenness.

Now the drinker is 'paralytic' (pronounced 'paralettic' inGlasgow) or 'legless': an incapable, falling down condition;'mortal', as in 'mortally pished' (also 'mortalled'; surely areference to 'mortally wounded'); 'cased' 'oot o'it' and if thedrinking bout continues he may even 'take a whitey' ('go deathlypale' prior to vomiting or worse). In the entertaining doubletape about Scotch, 'Whisky Galore' (reviewed on page 8, whichfirst alerted us to the three stages referred to above), AndrewDalmeyer reminds us that "the prudent drinker will alwaysremember that the three phases of drunkenness are directlyreflected in the three phases of a hangover: Firstly, 'Fragile';secondly, 'Very ill' and thirdly, 'Half dead' . . . "As yesow, so shall ye reap"!"

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