Where Did Saying Drunk as a Skunk Come from?

It is also used to produce ethanol. Skunks apparently love this and if they drink enough, they appear drunk, hence the term “drunk as a skunk” or in Portuguese, bêbado como um gambá.

Is drunk as a skunk a saying?

But we believe that “drunk as a skunk,” an American expression that originated in the 1920s, is merely rhyming slang and has no real connection with skunkdom. We say this because for more than 600 years, the inebriated have been described as “drunk as a” something-or-other, animate or inanimate.

Where did the term drunk come from?

Etymology. From Middle English drunke, drunken, ydrunke, ydrunken, from Old English druncen, ġedruncen (“drunk”), from Proto-Germanic *drunkanaz, *gadrunkanaz (“drunk; drunken”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”).