[In its specific sense Gifford says, "a corruption of the Dutch op-zee zober, 'over-sea beer,' a strong heady beverage intoduced into Holland from England." 'Up-zee Freese' is Friezeland beer. The German zauber means 'strong beer' and 'bewitchment.' Thus (1610) in Jonson, Alchemist, iv., 2. 'I do not like the dulness of your eye, It hath a heavy cast, 'tis upsee Dutch.' Other nautical terms = drunk are water-logged; sprung; slewed; with one's jib well bowsed; three sheets in the wind; channels under, but see Drinks and Screwed.]
1631-1701. Dryden. I am half-seas over to death.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Half-seas over, almost Drunk.
1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iii., 3. Good; that's thinking half-seas over. One tide more brings us into port.
1714. Spectator, No. 616. The whole magistracy was pretty well disguised before I gave them the slip. Our friend the alderman was half-seas over before the bonfire was out.
1738. Swift, Pol. Convers., Dial 1. You must own you had a drop in your eye; when I left you, you were half seas over.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. ix. Who, by this time, had entered into all the jollity of his new friends, and was indeed more than half-seas-over.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1829. J. B. Buckstone, Billy Taylor. The public-houses will not close till morn, And wine and spirituous liquors are so cheap, That we can all get nicely half seas over, And see no sea at all.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 40. Mr. Smith, now being more than half-seas over, became very uproarious.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxx. It's pay-day with the General . . . and he's a precious deal more than half-seas over.
1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xxviii. There's truth in wine, and there may be some in gin and muddy beer. . . . I've got plenty of truth in my time out of men who were half-seas-over, but never any that was worth a sixpence to me.
1890. Globe, 16 Apr., p. 2, c. 1. The familiar phrase half-seas over, for example, is wanting, and for this we appear to be indebted to the Dutch.
1892. The Cosmopolitan, Oct., p. 724. The fellow half-seas-over everyone excuses.
Half-slewed, adj. (common).—Parcel
drunk. For synonyms, see
Screwed.
Half-snacks (or Half-snags),
adv. phr. (colloquial).—Half-shares.
See quots.
1683. Earl of Dorset, A Faithful Catalogue. She mounts the price and goes half snack herself.
1887. Walford's Antiquarian, p. 252. Half-snags is a corrupted form of half snacks, i.e., half shares. If one of a party of arabs finds any article it becomes his entire property unless his fellows say Half-Snags, or 'Quarter-bits,' or 'Some for your neighbours.'
Half-'un, subs. (common).—Half-a
glass of spirits and water;
Half-a-Go (q.v.).
Half-widow, subs. (American).—A
woman with a lazy and thriftless
husband.
[For Half in combination, see also Bean: Borde; Bull; Case: Century; Couter; Dollar; George; Go; Grunter; Hog: Jack; James; Ned; Ounce; Quid; Skiv; Stretch; Tusheroon; Wheel.
Halifax. Go to Halifax, verb.
phr. (American).—Be off! go to
hell (q.v.). The full text is
Go to Hell, Hull, or Halifax.
Cf., Bath, Blazes,
Hull, Putney, etc.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, 1883-84, p. 284). If frier Pendela and his fellowes, had any thing to say to him, in his admiral court of the sea, let them seek him, and neither in hull, hell, nor halifax.
1875. Notes and Queries, 5 S., iv., p. 66. Go to Halifax. This expression is sometimes used in the United States as a mild substitute for a direction to go to a place not to be named to ears polite.
