08 January 2013

"Pre-drinking" and "gundamentalist" explained

Excerpts from two posts at Fritinancy:
Pre-drinking: “Chugging cheap alcoholic drinks before heading out to a bar, club, or sporting event.”.. Also called pre-gaming, pre-partying, pre-loading, or frontloading.  Young drinkers’ reasons for pre-drinking include saving money, “getting in the mood,” and “facilitating contacts with potential sexual partners.”
Researchers found that when students drank prior to going to a bar or club, they drank more than they would otherwise. On average, pre-drinking students consumed seven drinks, and students who drank only at a bar or event consumed just over four drinks.
“In fact, due to U.S. legal drinking age requirements, pre-drinking may be most prevalent among underage drinkers in the U.S. … Research shows that underage drinkers may be motivated to pre-drink to achieve a ‘buzz’ or become intoxicated before going to a licensed premise where they cannot legally consume alcohol, such as a bar, club, concert, or sporting event.”
Gundamentalist: A person who goes beyond the language of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and takes his or her unrestricted right to bear arms as a tenet of religious or quasi-religious faith. A portmanteau of “gun” and “fundamentalist.”... the word has been around for more than 80 years. I found a citation in the July 31, 1926, issue of The New Yorker... “Gundamentalist” has occasionally been claimed with pride by those it’s meant to shame...

6 comments:

  1. Odd. I read a lot of gun blogs, but I've never encountered that term. I have, however, routinely encountered "hoplophobia."

    It's worth nothing to Heinrichs that the Bill of Rights (including the Second Amendment) does not grant rights, but affirms pre-existing, natural rights (cf. "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable...."). It is not unreasonable to go beyond the language of the Second Amendment, or any other, when referring to a right, especially given the text of the Ninth.

    It's also worth noting that Heinrichs doesn't know what a clip is.

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    1. Agreed and agreed. And I will wear gundamentalist with pride; anything that the New Yorker sneers at couldn't be all bad.

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  2. Sadly, for an activity many people feel passionate about, "pre-drinking" seems to be too prosaic a term.
    In German it is called "Vorglühen", i.e. preheating/preglowing. And, inexplicably, Norwegians appear to have adopted the German term "Vorspiel", which of course means foreplay. Funny to see German words with sexual connotations make it big abroad, given our rudimentary romantic reputation.

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    1. I was about to post the same about "vorglühen".
      Saving money is definitely a motive although I feel that it's mostly done to solidify your group before heading out into the nightlife, especially when someone brings somebody new ot's an opportunity to get to know each other in a more private atmosphere. I guess it really depends on the group though, wether this part of the night is about "drinking as much as possible in as short a time as possible for the least amount of money possible" or about "slowly getting mentally ready for the partying".

      Now that I write about it: I guess the latter is the original meaning. "vorglühen" is surely derived from "aufwärmen" or "warming up" in english. So instead of warming up in order to do sports you preheat in order to party.

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    2. Mein Deutsch könnte besser sein, but I always assumed that "glühen" in the context of drinking alcohol was a reference to the way the vasodilation it causes makes your cheeks/face glow a rosy red.

      Isn't the function of Glühwein to make you glow?

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  3. I have always called the pre-drinking phenomenon "priming", as in priming the pumps. It is done in my social circles primarily as a cost reduction; this is not restricted to the young

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