Language: drink

[beccaelizabeth]

Language is wierd.
People say 'drinking' when they mean 'drinking alcohol'.
How did alcohol get to be the default?
And then you get sentences like 'he needs to quit drinking' which only make sense when you add the word that isn't there, because generally speaking human beings need to drink, but they do not need to drink alcohol. They need to quit alcohol. So why isn't alcohol in the sentence?
I'm sure it must make it a harder thought. I mean to have a word that means both a necessary and a nasty thing, two seperate things one word, could feel like quitting the nasty was quitting a necessary. More difficult.
Plus if you ever say 'I need a drink' then it gets read as 'I need alcohol' not 'I need lemonade'.
Since I dislike alcohol I end up either leaving the word 'drink' out of my vocabulary and saying 'need water' or adding extra words in all the time. Why isn't water or something harmless the default? How did it get to be alcohol?

Comments

[karinalee.livejournal.com]

Interesting question, becca. I know when I say - I need a drink of something other than alcohol, I specify. Like - I need coffee or water, and leave out the 'drinking' part altogether. Must have been something I grew up doing because I don't think about how I'm saying it.

You are right, tho, we assume that when somewhen says - "I need a drink." that they mean alcohol.

I don't like alcohol either and save my 'drinking' for social occasions, but always stop at 1 or 2, then I switch to water or coffee.

Alcohol is bad for a lot of people who use it to self-medicate for various reasons. The drug of choice for many.

[beccaelizabeth]

I don't drink alcohol. It doesn't do anything pleasant for me. The bumping into walls and falling over I can manage without chemical assisstance.
Plus it does very bad things to very many people, and I just don't want any part of that.
Issues.

but its so pervasive in human history, and language. is quite strange to me.