drinker

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drinkere,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English drincere (“drinker, drunkard”),^[5][3][6][7] the agent noun formed from Old English drincan + -ere,^[3][7] that is, from drink and -er.^[8][9] The Old English word corresponds to Old High German trinkāri (“drinker”).^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who drinks: in the Old English gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels, where drincere wines renders the Latin potator vini of Matthew 11:19.^[8][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 950.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word already meant a wine-bibber or drunkard as well as anyone who drinks,^[5][10] and the special sense of a habitual drinker of alcohol is recorded again from about 1200.^[8][7] From 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, it was qualified by adjectives such as great, hard or small to show how much a person drank.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it only as "one that drinks to excess; a drunkard".^[11] In 1682 it became the name of a large European moth, the drinker moth, so called from its long sucking proboscis,^[8][3] a use also found in Somerset dialect.^[12] From 1947 a drinker was also a drinking trough for animals.^[8] In British criminal slang from 1955 it meant an after-hours or unlicensed drinking club, and later a pub.^[13]

Timeline

• Old English – one who drinks; also a drunkard.^[8][5]
• c. 1200 – one who drinks alcohol to excess.^[8][7]
• 1340 – with great, hard, small and similar adjectives.^[8]
• 1682 – the drinker moth.^[8]
• 1947 – a drinking trough.^[8]
• 1955 – slang, an after-hours drinking club.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who drinks: a coffee drinker.^[3][14][8]
2. A person who drinks alcohol, especially habitually or to excess: a heavy drinker.^[14][3][8]
3. The drinker moth, a large brownish European moth with a long proboscis.^[14][3][8]
4. A vessel or device that supplies water to livestock or poultry.^[3][8]
5. (British slang) An after-hours or unlicensed drinking club.^[13]

Word family

• nondrinker

Related words

• drink
• drunkard
• drench

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins