Definition: wine (in colloquial and slang language)

None of these are good wines. Pinard can simply be a bad pinot, since the suffix "-ard" always has a pejorative connotation.

Piquette, in addition to being sharp, since it is not a good wine, is also "small" because of the suffix "-ette" (cf. clopinettes or mominette, which is not only a teenage girl, but also a glass of aperitif). Just like another suffix, -asse, which is also pejorative and has given us vinasse (cf. poufiasse, déguelasse, connasse, etc.) or "-oche", which is more pleasant, in vinoche (but also cinoche, valoche, etc.). An undrinkable wine was (and still is) called pipi de chat. We also say picrate which, according to J.L. Calvet, comes from piccolo, another word for wine, and it is from this that the word picoler, to drink alcohol, was formed. However, it seems that the etymology is false, as the word comes from the name of the picric acid salt that wine contains. There are other words from old slang with unclear etymology, such as tortu, tutu, jaja (jaja is regaining its former popularity, but be careful, it refers to red wine, not white), and jinjin (not gin-gin, named after the English drink).

Many alcoholic beverages have their own names, for example, eau-de-vie is often gnôle, red wine is rouquin (not very common), and Beaujolais is beaujolpif. Beer is now ordered by young people as a binouze or, using an older term, a bibine (which by extension, in the form of la, bibine also refers to bad wine or even bad coffee). Aniseed is called bain sulfureux, pastis is a jaune, etc.

For example: What would you prefer, an aperitif or a glass of red? It's homemade red (Céline). Listen, what he served us was undrinkable, real cat's piss. It's a grand cru, it's not plonk. I'd like another pint, a real pint of real beer (says Zazie in Queneau).

We drink a lot: we knock back a few, we get plastered or, rarely but enigmatically, we get drunk as a skunk. There is a variant, "to smash your face in; to knock yourself out". We biberonne (there is the idea of regularity), like a child sucking on a bottle, we say with a different meaning, on tète (said of someone who doesn't stop sucking, it's always the child who is blamed, he sucks on his mother, he sucks on his bottle), we whistle, we throw one down (down the hatch, down the throat, down the drain, etc., and of course, we do it quickly). We knock one back (sometimes behind the tie, i.e. "one", implying a glass. Our alcoholic beverage enthusiasts say: we lock up (a lock is designed to let water through, it can be something stronger), we pump, we get drunk. It seems that se torcher and se bourrer la gueule are used more in the first person (e.g. qu'est-ce qu'on s'est bourré la gueule hier, je te dis pas), while picoler, biberonner, etc. are used more in the third person when talking about others (il ne fait que picoler). If you had a few too many drinks the night before and you have a headache, the diagnosis is: you've had a biture (note that biture is linked to the idea of excessive alcohol consumption, but any biture is linked to the idea of excessive speed) or a cuite (the latter word being more common) or even a pinte or a mufflée (a cuite that leaves you unable to stand up). So, logically, we would say se cuiter or, more rarely, se biturer. But you can also get drunk, get wasted or get smashed (get drunk) or just get smashed (drink heavily), always with the risk of sounding old-fashioned or too provincial. There is also a charming euphemism: get stung by the hive. In the Paris suburbs, people drink differently: they go on a bender, they knock back a few, they get drunk, they paint themselves, etc. One expression that is not at all familiar, but which is used a lot, is boire comme un Polonais (to drink like a Pole), which means to drink a lot. Originally, it had an additional meaning: to drink without getting drunk, a quality attributed to Poles by Napoleon, who coined the expression.

What do we knock back and what do we pump? A godet, a canon (the most common, the latter originally being a measure of capacity (1/16 l, not much in fact), a glass (which is rarer). We drink a glass, i.e. a drink; we pump a glass. Of course, not all glasses are the same. A galopin is a small glass of beer, as is a mariée, while a voyageur is a glass of white wine (as is a pierrot), but these words are more familiar to French people who are used to raising their elbows, so choose your words carefully depending on your audience. If it's dark beer, then you have a brune, or, if that's too much for you, a demi-brune, a demi de brune (because originally it contained half a litre, today it's only a quarter) or a mousse (also 25 cl) (a demi sans faux-col, being a demi without foam). The same applies to lager, except that a half is understood to be an ordinary draught lager, whereas if you want a dark beer, you have to specify this. A ballon (10 cl) for red wine (this is the name of the most common wine glass). A formidable (50 cl) = 2 demis (25 cl) = 2 galopins. But if you can handle it, you can down a litron (a whole bottle, but it's usually bad wine that's sold in litre bottles). A boutanche is a 75 cl bottle of wine (not currently listed in Le Petit Robert). A cadavre is an empty bottle, and some "specialists" distinguish between bottles that have just been emptied and bottles that have survived until the morning after a feast: the latter are not considered cadavres. A monocle is a drink received on the house, i.e. for free. When drinking with friends, you can say you're having a drink. This is also used to downplay the importance of the event: you know, darling, we're just going for a drink with friends, to celebrate getting our driving licence, the start of the school year, the approach of the holidays, but we'll just have a drop...And then launch into a masterful drunken monologue. But you can also drink in Switzerland, get drunk on your own, or fill your own glass, but not your friend(s)'s.

Examples: I like to knock back a few from time to time, but getting drunk every day like he does, no thanks; He downed his glass in one go; I'm fed up with all this boozing, you're celebrating something every day, you never stop drinking. It was great at Manu's yesterday, we got completely wasted; we got drunk; we were drunk; we were plastered and on top of that I picked up a girl...

When you down a glass in one go, you drink it in one gulp: this refers to the bottom of the glass, of course. If you take your time to finish your drink, you sip your wine. Another way of drinking is the Russian way: when you toast in the Russian style, you throw your empty glass behind you.

Let's call him all sorts of names: he's an alcoholic, a drunk, a boozer or a drunkard. He's also a drunk (or its usual variant among young drinkers, pochetrons or pochtrons), a wine bag, a baby bottle, a bottle emptier, he has a hole under his nose, etc. Among the latest additions to the scene: sponge, sink (perhaps because we say "drink like a sink"), sewer...

Examples: What are you talking about: "we had a drink with friends", you're becoming a real drunkard. But he never sobers up, he's a hopeless drunk. The employees of company X? They're all a bunch of boozers!

The effect is well known: after two or three glasses of wine, you're just a little tipsy, you're off, you're drunk (you hear older people say this after their first glass: Oh, I'm a little drunk; you're cheerful, in a party mood, or you've had a drink (which is perplexing (in France, people really put anything up their noses), you're drunk, black out, but in principle at this stage, the vocabulary is not varied, it gradually enriches itself. Some people can't hold their drink and collapse under the table after just a few glasses.

Then you get drunk, you're drunk, plastered, or dead drunk, and you've had your fill, you're wasted (completely), paf, schlass, stiff (as a board), drunk (which derives from the English word drunk), round (like a shovel handle, like a barrel, like a saucer, like a quince, like a cow, like a canteen, like a blood sausage), blinded, cooked, full, soaked, ripe, rétamé (this is pretty much the final stage because rétamer also means to fall). Some expressions that are, if not very common, at least funny: être sur Soleure (in Switzerland), être asphyxié, être saoul comme 36 cochons, on voit double. More recently, on est à l'ouest, en défonce (or foncedé), racave (note that there is no accent at the end, and it also means under the influence of drugs). On the emotional side, euphoria rises, of course, as we are already in the Lord's vineyards. We also have vin triste or vin joyeux, depending on whether, after drinking, we are depressed or jumping for joy. Be careful, some words are barely familiar, others are much more so.

In the morning, as everyone knows, we have a hangover, we don't feel well, we're thirsty and our mouths are dry. We may also have a headache or feel like we've been hit over the head.

Examples: Three glasses are more than enough to get you tipsy. I can't stand him when he's had a few. The lads are completely knackered. When he's had a few, he can really let rip (Gibeau). I have to say, he was as black as a cow, Dad! (Queneau).