ebriety

English

Etymology

From French ébriété (“drunkenness”), from Latin ēbrietātem, from ēbrius (“drunk”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈbɹaɪ.ɪt.i/

Noun

ebriety (countable and uncountable, plural ebrieties)

1. (uncountable) The state of intoxication, drunkenness.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience […] ‎^[1], London: Folio Society, published 2008, page 351:

     God's touches, the wounds of his spear, references to ebriety and to nuptial union have to figure in the phraseology by which [a mystical state] is shadowed forth.

   • 1902, Henry James, The Wings of the Dove:

     It had been as the murmurous consecration to follow the murmurous welcome; and even if it were but part of Aunt Maud's own spiritual ebriety—for the dear woman, one could see, was spiritually "keeping" the day—it served to Milly, then and afterwards, as a high-water mark of the imagination.

2. (obsolete) An instance of being drunk.