sottish

9.9

Someone who often gets drunk because they drink too much alcohol

adjective
/ˈsɑːtɪʃ/

Archaic

: ebrio

Examples

In the satirical version below, the fat and sottish Boswell cavorts with his journal clutched in one hand and his inkhorn dangling from a buttonhole.

Blog text (24)
After drinking too much at the party, he became quite sottish and started to slur his words.
The sottish man stumbled down the street, clearly unable to walk straight after a long night of drinking.
She realized that his sottish behavior was becoming a problem, as he often arrived home late and intoxicated.

Synonyms

drunken

vssottish

168 2.8

Having too much alcohol in the body and behaving loudly or strangely

is about a lasting habit of excessive drinking rather than a temporary state

boozy

vssottish

Informal

7 7.7

Full of alcohol or involving a lot of drinking

is about repeated, excessive drinking rather than casual enjoyment

bibulous

vssottish

Literature

9.9

Fond of drinking a lot of alcohol

is the informal everyday term rather than the formal literary one

Antonyms

sober

269 3.2

Not having drunk alcohol or taken drugs

abstinent

8.0

A person who does not drink alcohol

How Drunk

alcoholic

41 4.7

sottish

Archaic

9.9

drunk

∞ 1.6

tipsy

Informal

18 4.8

Surface Forms

sottish positive

Morphology

sottish = sot (transparent) = sot + ish

Formed by straightforward suffixation of '-ish' to 'sot', giving the predictable meaning 'sot-like' or habitually drunk.

Etymology

The word sottish comes from the old word sot, which meant 'a fool' and later 'a drunk'. So, sottish describes someone who is often drunk or who behaves in a foolish, drunken way.