Word of the Day

Saturday September 04, 2010

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toper [TOH-puhr]

noun

1. One who drinks frequently or to excess; a drunkard; a sot.

• By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a toper, and I couldn't do lunchtime drinking except on Christmas Day, but if you took the thing everyone always lies about - units per week - I was definitely at the outer limit.
  Richard Kay, "Did he really warn Diana about Dodi or is it just fantasy by a royal pretender?", Daily Mail, Sep 2, 2010
• Branding the former Labour leader a "stupendous toper", Mr Blair wrote: "He could drink in a way I have never seen before or since.
  Simon Johnson, "Heavy-drinker Smith's death was no surprise", The Daily Telegraph, Sep 2, 2010
• The electric light in front of the massive safe seemed to lear at him with a bleared eye like that of a toper, who, having spent the night in convivial company, found himself, most unaccountably, on his own doorstep in the gray dawn.
  Chester K. Steele A house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate; this mystery was ghostwritten. The Diamond Cross Mystery (1918)

Origin of the Word

Toper, approximately 1651, derives from unknown origin, perhaps ultimately from Italian toppa "done!" a word signifying acceptance of a bet.