Where Does The Phrase "Drunk as a Stoat" come from?

[AB Editor]

Any idea where this phrase comes from. It just occurred to me as a very strange thing to be drunk as.

A little light googling leads mere here: http://uk.answers.yah...20090720201630AAUhMZz and here: http://www.urbandicti...ine.php?term=stotious

The latter offering this: irish term for a state of total Inebriation

So, is the stoat a much maligned animal (Having never been drinking with a stoat I am unsure how drunk they tend to get)? Or a trip of language somewhere along the line?

All the best,

Spare Ed

Also: Hungover owls anyone? http://hungoverowls.tumblr.com/

[bibblebub]

guessing that it derives from "drunk as a skunk" (surely chosen just for alliteration), a stoat being another small furry animal with a monosyllabic name, that happened to catch on with some people

[albaqwerty]

agree with the alliteration thing, but there is also as pe'ee'd as a newt (poor newt)

[AB Editor]

I suppose that is it.

Nothing as romantic as Stoats being attracted almost magnetically to fine wines a spirits then? Rows of them on the riverbank, arm in arm, singing "Show me the way to go home".

Spare Ed

[jno]

and are newts p!ssed?

In Africa, they try to tidy up the fruit off the marula tree, otherwise they start to ferment (it's what goes into Amarula liqueur), and elephants eat them, and get like newts. You don't want to be around a drunk elephant if you can avoid it.

[jno]

hm, I say that, but I've just googled it and it appears it may be a non-urban myth

http://news.nationalg...9_drunk_elephant.html

[joggerjayne]

I don't believe that stoats are particularly noted for their intemperance.

[albaqwerty]

lol at the thought of even trying to get round a drunk elephant :) (doesn't bear thinking about. Saw a documentary some years ago about drunk monkeys (Serengeti possibly) and whilst I felt their pain it was hilarious.

[AB Editor]

I think a hung-over elephant might be the biggest issue...

Any idea what is going on here: http://msnbcmedia3.ms...med-140a.grid-6x2.jpg ?

[jackthehat]

And why, when one has been severely ethanol-ically challenged, is it referred to by mention of the nether regions of a rat ?

[jno]

good grief, I'm thinking that photo was taken in Leicestershire where men are men and still go hunting in the wilds.

[AB Editor]

As we're speaking about nether reasons, why are the dog's botox held in such high regard?

No idea about the rat's posterior though, except this might lend a little light: http://www.theanswerb...s/Question301490.html

[jackthehat]

No..............silly !
It's Northumberland, when men are men..............and so are the women...........:o)

[bibblebub]

the image of an elephant with "the morning after" squits is too disgusting

[AB Editor]

NO ONE was thinking that Bibblebub, until you said it that is.

Cheers.