A wedding photographer says she happens to run into lots of people who are three sheets to the wind, and wonders why that term came to mean “falling-down drunk.” Turns out, it’s from nautical terminology. On a seagoing vessel, the term sheets refers to the lines or ropes that hold the sails in place. If one, two, or even three sheets get loose and start flapping in the wind, the boat will swerve and wobble as much as someone who’s overimbibed. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Three Sheets to the Wind”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi there, this is Nikki Riggs. I’m from Waco, Texas.
Hi Nikki, welcome to the program.
Hi Nikki.
Hey, nice to talk to you guys.
All right, what’s shaking in Waco?
So, hey, I’m a wedding photographer, and I was telling a story to my family a while back about, you know, that crazy drunken groomsman that always happens to be at every wedding.
How does he keep getting invited? This one guy shows up everywhere.
Everywhere, and I don’t think that he’s actually a wedding crasher.
There’s a separate one at every wedding.
He just knows a lot of people.
He’s got a million Facebook friends.
Exactly.
So anyway, in describing this guy that happens to be at every wedding, about this particular wedding, I said that this particular groomsman by noon was three sheets to the wind.
And everybody just kind of looked at me and goes, where did you hear that phrase?
And I said, well, hello from my family, from you guys.
There was this discussion about where I had heard that phrase, why I would ever use that phrase, and what exactly it means and where it comes from.
Obviously, everybody knows that it means, you know, kind of falling down drunk.
My grandfather, being a sailor, claims that it’s a nautical term.
And him having the experience with, you know, enough drunken sailors, I’m inclined to believe him.
I figured that I should probably ask you guys because he will be probably our best.
So do you have a reason to know a lot of terms for drunkenness?
I don’t personally, other than the wedding aspect.
But she thinks we do.
Three sheets to the wind is a nautical term.
Yeah.
Sounds pretty likely.
It sounds likely.
What else did he tell you about that?
He didn’t really have any sort of answers for it other than, you know, he had heard that it was a nautical term, something, you know, kind of old time when you were, you know, still sailing with actual sails.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
The sheets on a boat, you would think it would be the sails because they look like big sheets, but the sheets are actually the lines that hold the sails in place, the ropes.
But I think on a ship you call it lines.
Yeah, yeah, you don’t call them ropes.
They know you’re a lubber if you do.
Okay, well, these lines that are holding the sails in place.
And so if one sheet gets loose and starts flapping in the wind, the sail’s going to go a little wobbly.
Two sheets, it gets even more wobbly.
Three sheets to the wind, and the sail is just…
The boat could do anything.
Yeah, the boat’s just lurching around like a drunken sailor.
Yeah, it could climb up on the beach and order a drink from the fruit stand.
Excellent.
So just envision a boat just veering all over the place, pitching and yawing and under no control whatsoever.
That makes so much sense, and it is the perfect term.
I’m so glad that I used that term to describe this particular groomsman.
Well, it’s funny to me that you think that you learned that term from your family, and they’re like, huh?
We don’t know.
You know, sometimes people just don’t really want to be called out on the idea that they know a lot of terms for drunkenness.
Right.
Well, we learned this one from the dictionary.
Yeah, yeah.
No, really.
Sure.
The life of a wedding photographer sounds like it might be exciting.
You know, it is.
I have a good time.
It’s not all partying like a rock star.
Like, everybody seems to think there’s a lot of the business in that goes into it.
Yeah, but there’s always the bridezilla, right?
Oh, sure.
But Saturday night comes around, and regardless of what’s going on, it’s always a good time.
Yeah.
You’ve got a guaranteed party to go to, right?
Exactly.
Nikki.
Yeah.
You sound really cool.
Thanks for giving us a call.
Thanks so much for having me on the show.
I really appreciate it.
Yeah, our pleasure.
Take care.
Okay.
Rock on.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
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