Way With Words: Three Sheets

Jimbob’s moonshine got the better of him.

The guy can’t walk straight and now spends half his time getting up. Jerry tells him that he’s taking him home because he’s “three sheets to the wind.”

How did that become a saying that means ‘incredibly drunk?’

After all, alcohol doesn’t lend itself to the saying “three sheets to the wind.”

Turns out that it is another nautical saying, describing the ropes or chains that hold the lower parts of a sail in place.

With three sheets loose, a ship will lurch about like a drunken sailor, or rather the sailor lurches around like a ship with its sails loose and beholden to the wind.

Once that visual is in the mind, it’s a pretty accurate statement that fits ol’ Jimbob’s behavior.