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A.Word.A.Day--ebrious

ebrious (EE-bree-uhs) adjective

1. Inclined to excessive drinking.

2. Tipsy.

[From Latin ebrius (drunk). Two cousins of this word are inebriated and sobriety.]

"One seminal figure, Thompson, was a 'dissolute, ebrious, profane, lascivious English-Dutchman'." Nicholas Phillipson; Political Discourse in Early Modern Britain; Cambridge University Press; 1993.

"Yet far more terrible the line that flows From ebrious passion to supine remorse." Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-1885); The Fall of Alipius.

Guest wordsmith Brett Jocelyn Epstein writes:

Food, glorious food! All of us eat to live, but some of us live to eat too. Just like many people today, I greatly enjoy learning about food, experimenting with it, and eating it.

I also have a professional interest in the topic, as a writer of articles about restaurants and chefs for Gourmet, The Danish Pioneer, and other publications, and as a translator who has worked on menus and restaurant websites.

I've had a lot of fun getting offered morsels of food directly from a chef's dirty fingers (no, thanks!), and writing about a restaurant that only served salmon, in a Monty Python-esque array of dishes, and puzzling over oddly mistranslated dishes advertised on restaurant menus, such as "rasher of joints", "duck with dry fruits and jewels", "well-hung meat", and "cloudberry consume".

Because of my dual fascination with all things language and all things culinary, I have started collecting unusual food words. This week, we'll be looking at some of those words.

-Brett Jocelyn Epstein

(Brett Jocelyn Epstein is originally from Chicago and now lives in Sweden. She teaches English, writes articles about Scandinavia, food, and other topics, translates between Swedish and English, and copy edits. She is also the author of a forthcoming textbook, "Ready, Set, Teach: Creative Lessons for the Intermediate English Classroom". More info at brettdaniel.net.)

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