What exactly does it mean when someone says “He’s three sheets to the wind”? And how did this euphemism come about?
It means “He’s thoroughly drunk,” to the point of veering out of control as he tries to walk.
I seem to recall reading that it’s one of those maritime metaphors. The ‘sheets’ are the ropes used to tighten the sails of a ship, and when even one is flying loose in the wind the sail is doing no good at all. And three sails like that means the ship is ready to go down!
Having three sheets to the wind means to be sloppy drunk. It is an old sailing term. Sheets were ropes used to control the way sails caught the wind. Not having them adjusted properly caused clumsy sailing.
We just did this one. Check “search” before you ask. It sometimes yields the answer.
This week’s New Yorker has a nice article about sailing (“Our Far Flung Correspondents”) that explains this and a few other nautical terms that have entered the common vernacular. It doesn’t appear to be online, but hey, I’m sure you take the New Yorker already, right?
There’s a pretty good ragtime tune called Three Sheets in the Ocean, One Foot in the Sunset, and You
Here are a couple of sites that have nautical terms and phrases that have survived in common usage:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/traditions/html/navyterm.html