Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Today's Reason To Drink

Because the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com is "toper."

toper \TOH-puhr\, noun:

One who drinks frequently or to excess.

Although he was no toper, God forbid, he took a glass of aquavit . . . .
-- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Reaches of Heaven

But there remains a core of bottom-line voters to whom the promise of tax cuts is as seductive as gin to a toper.
-- David Nyhan, "Tax cuts for all - wheee!", Boston Globe, January 21, 2000

You may walk around a bar with a big mug of beer . . . , but if you sloshed it all over a fellow toper, you'd pay the cleaning bill.
-- Randy Cohen, "At Random: Everyday Ethics", Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2003

Toper is formed from the verb tope, "to drink," originally an interjection used in proposing a toast, from Frenchtope!, "agreed!" from toper, "to cover a stake in playing at dice, to accept an offer, to agree."

1 comment:

Woodford Man said...

My many rich years of experience would allow me to teach a course in topernomics.