A Tale of Three Sandpipers

In any language, there are plenty of ways to talk about drinking and getting drunk. Not surprisingly, this is a particularly “rich” vein in the Russian linguistic mine.

Some of the most common words that, in an appropriate context, can mean drinking without excess are выпить (drink), принять (take in) and поддать (add, increase). A typical rhymed invitation to have a drink is: Что-то стало холодать – е пора ли нам поддать? (It’s getting kind of cold; isn’t it time we added a bit?)

Dozens of drinking words start with the prefix на-. All usually signify not light, social drinking, but really getting hammered. One can нажраться (get gobbled up), накачаться (get pumped full), набраться (gather it up), нализаться (“over-lick” it), налакаться (lap it up), накваситься (get fermented), or наклюкаться, which probably derives from the -archaic word куликать. Кулик is a sandpiper, but also, according to Vladimir Dal, used to -signify a drunkard. So куликать meant both crying like a sandpiper and getting drunk. In Dostoyevsky’s Dvoynik (The Double), Golyadkin cajoles his servant Petrusha with: “ну, клюкнул, мерзавец, маленько... на гривенник, что ли, клюкнул?” (“come on, you had a nip, you scoundrel ... you drank up a grivennik [ten kopek piece], did you?”)

Drinking euphemisms hint that booze can be replaced with everything from kerosene (накеросиниться), to rosin (наканифолиться). The word налимониться (get lemoned) leaves one at loss – what has this citrus fruit got to do with it? Dal suggests that it might be because lemon was added to punch. 

The cute-sounding назюзюкаться is a classic word, encountered often in 19th century Russian literature. It derives from an archaic noun зюзя, meaning a man soaked by rain or, alternatively, soaked with booze. In Chekhov’s play, The Three Sisters, Kulygin teases Chebutykin: “Назюзюкался, Иван Романыч! Молодец! In vino veritas, говорили древние.” (“You’ve been hitting the bottle, Ivan Romanich! Congratulations! In vino veritas, as the ancients said.”)

Most of the above, if used without the perfecting prefix на, connote the process of drinking rather than the sloshed result. For instance, квасить designates a prolonged drinking session, not just taking a shot or two. 

The notion of getting drunk on a more or less regular basis can be expressed by a neutral выпивать But why not use the more colorful поддавать (imperfective form of поддать), or закладывать за воротник (to stow it behind one’s collar). Alternatively, booze can be put behind one’s necktie (галстук) or trunk (хобот). 

Interestingly, many drinking words seem to share the rattling consonant pair др, which makes them easily associated with the English “drink.” Thus, one can be drunk вдрызг (to smither-eens) or надрызгаться (get plastered), надраться (get thrashed), or, if words fail, надринькатся (from the English). The words дёрнуть or the onomatopoetic дерябнуть and колдырнуть all imply sloshing. 

The degree of drunkenness can be emphasized by different adverbs. To the adjective пьяный (drunk) can be added: в дугу (arch-drunk), в доску (as a board), в стельку (as the sole of a shoe), в лоскут (like a rag), в дымину (smoked) and в хлам (trashed), to offer almost too much subtlety to the idea of “very drunk.”

In Russia, cheap, unceremonious drinking is traditionally done in groups of three. A bottle of liquor is easily divided by three and so is its cost. Thus сообразить на троих (figure it out for three) means to drink in a company of three. “Третьим будешь?” (“Wanna be our third?”) is how a couple of drunks might ask you to join their pointless party of dissipation. Not that this is the company you might fall into, but the phrase could be used in a funny, non-serious way among more temperate friends.

A bender lasting for days or weeks is referred to as a запой. When you depart on such a journey you уйти в запой, or simply запить (start [long-term] drinking), or загудеть (hoot away). 

Most all drinking ends the same way, with a hangover. The most neutral word for this morning-after disease is похмелье, but it has more colorful synonyms, such as похмелюга or бодун. The origin of the latter is unknown, although it might have some connection to the word бодать (to butt, gore). One’s state at this time is referred to as с похмелья or с бодуна.

The morning after, of course, is when, discussing one’s exploits with some of the vocabulary above, one re-members too late the trenchant war-ning of the Health Ministry: Чрезмерное употребление алкоголя вредит вашему здоровью! (Drinking to excess is bad for your health.)