Tipsiest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The highest degree of intoxication one can achieve through alcohol consumption
2. The condition in which a person experiences their utmost inebriation due to drinking
3. Experiencing the greatest level of drunkenness caused by drinking alcoholic beverages

Etymology: "Tipsiest" is the superlative of "tipsy," so its history is really the history of the base word. "Tipsy" first appeared in English in the 1600s, and its earliest senses were closer to "unsteady" or "tilting" than to drunkenness. The root is "tip," which meant to tilt or topple, the same verb that gives us tipping a bucket or tipping over a chair. A person who tottered from side to side was, in that older sense, tippy, and by the early 1700s the word had narrowed to describe someone staggering from drink. The suffix "-y" is an ordinary English ending meaning "having the quality of," and it has been attached to nouns and verbs for centuries. Adding "-iest" to form the superlative follows the usual pattern for two-syllable adjectives ending in "-y," which change the "y" to "i" before the ending. So "tipsiest" is a regular formation with no special story of its own.

Synonyms: drunkest, intoxicated

Antonyms: sober, abstinent