tipsy

Etymology

It is formed from English tip + -sy,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} the verb being, according to the OED, the one meaning to fall by overbalancing, and it compares tricksy.^[2] Skeat likewise took it as literally "unsteady",^[8] and Klein starts from the sense "to cause to tilt".^[9] Etymonline analyses it instead as the suffix -y with an inserted -s-, comparing flimsy, and leaves open whether the base is the verb meaning to lean or slant or the noun meaning a light, sharp blow.^[10] Dictionary.com also allows an obsolete noun of the same form meaning strong drink, perhaps a back-formation from tipple, and compares obsolete bumpsy in the same sense.^[11] Etymonline and Weekley note that the word was later associated with that verb of drinking,^[10][7] and Johnson derived it directly from it.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unable to walk or stand steadily because of drink, partly drunk: 1577, in M. Hanmer's translation of Eusebius.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s,^[10] and Dictionary.com to 1570–80.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word described the unsteadiness of the drinker, and the OED notes that it has often served as a euphemism for plain drunkenness.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it without any softening as "drunk; overpowered with excess of drink", quoting Milton's "Tipsy dance and jollity".^[12] From 1637, in Milton's Comus, it could describe what goes with or causes intoxication rather than the drinker,^[2][3] and later, from 1753 in Richardson, something merely unsteady or inclined to tilt.^[2][3] That use belongs to a weak link between drinking and types of movement which Mapping Metaphor dates to the second half of the 18th century.^[13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds emotional states that resemble mild drunkenness.^[5] The verb, to make tipsy, is recorded from 1673 and has long been rare;^[2][3] tipsify is dated to the early 17th century by the Shorter Oxford and to 1830 by Etymonline.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1577 – partly drunk, unsteady from drink.^[2][5]
• 1637 – marked by or causing intoxication, in Milton.^[2][3]
• 1673 – verb, to make tipsy, in Shadwell.^[2]
• 1753 – unsteady as if from drink; inclined to tilt, in Richardson.^[2][3]
• 1806 – tipsy-cake, stale cake soaked in wine or liquor.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Slightly drunk: After two glasses of cider the guests were pleasantly tipsy.^[14][5][2]
2. Showing, or caused by, mild intoxication: a tipsy grin.^[5][2][3]
3. Affected in feeling as if slightly drunk.^[5][2]
4. Slightly tilted, or liable to tip; askew.^[14][2][3]

Verb

1. (rare) To make someone tipsy.^[2][3]

Word family

• tipsily
• tipsiness
• tipsify
• tipsy cake

Related words

• tip
• tipple
• tricksy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins