ABSTRACT
Preoccupation with alcohol—as beverage, relaxant, tonic, stimulant, anesthetic, drug, temptation, vice, article of commerce, taboo, social problem, and illness—is reflected in the plethora of English words, both technical and colloquial, for drunkenness. In 1722, when Franklin was only sixteen, he had already collected nineteen terms signifying drunkenness. Nevertheless, Franklin was anything but a critic of drinking. In an undated letter, he sings the praises of wine, while poking fun, gently but wisely, at water drinkers: In vino Veritas, says the sage, truth in wine. Indeed, the first list of American colloquialisms on any subject was Benjamin Franklin's catalogue of synonyms for drunkenness, The Drinkers Dictionary, published in 1737. "The Drinkers Dictionary" was originally published anonymously, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, in January 1737. It consisted of an alphabetical arrangement of more than two hundred and twenty-five synonyms or synonymous phrases denoting drunkenness, and was introduced by a quotation from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack.
