Today's Word "toper"
One who drinks to excess
on
Published in Vocabulary
toper \TOH-puhr\ (noun) - One who drinks frequently or to excess.
"He often gives breath to scurrilous conjecture. The toper suborns good fruit and gives it to decay, and the good person who wishes to enjoy the sanivacity and good savor of the wholesome fruit is bereft and must raise this outcry: 'Why have you despoiled me, O toper, of my fruit and given it to filthy decay?'" -- Jack Vance, 'Demon Princes: The Face'
Toper is formed from the verb tope, "to drink," originally an interjection used in proposing a toast, from French tope!, "agreed!" from toper, "to cover a stake in playing at dice, to accept an offer, to agree."
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