{"id":2196,"date":"2013-06-27T19:54:45","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T19:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:48:51","slug":"drunk-as-a-skunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/drunk-as-a-skunk\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunk as a Skunk: The Curious Origins of This Idiom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/skunk-con-una-imagen-predisenada-de-flores_435265.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3337\" src=\"http:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/skunk-con-una-imagen-predisenada-de-flores_435265.jpg\" alt=\"drunk skunk looking up\" width=\"253\" height=\"438\" \/><\/a>Ever wondered where the popular idiom &#8220;as drunk as a skunk&#8221; comes from? A Brazilian friend told me today that, in Brazil, after raw sugar cane is harvested, they extract the juice ready to be made into the sugar we put in our coffee. It is also used to produce ethanol. Skunks apparently love this and if they drink enough, they appear drunk, hence the term &#8220;drunk as a skunk&#8221; or in Portuguese,\u00a0<em>b\u00eabado como um gamb\u00e1.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I can find absolutely no evidence to support this but have no reason to doubt my friend. Has anyone else heard of this? I must confess, I&#8217;ve never even thought about it before&#8230; it&#8217;s so interesting that we use expressions such as this all the time but never think of the origins!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 22px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/language-courses.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Explore our language courses with qualified native speakers in your city or online!<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Article updated on August 13, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever wondered where the popular idiom &#8220;as drunk as a skunk&#8221; comes from? A Brazilian friend told&#8230;","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-learning-resources"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drunk as a Skunk: The Curious Origins of This Idiom - Language Trainers UK Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/drunk-as-a-skunk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drunk as a Skunk: The Curious Origins of This Idiom - Language Trainers UK Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever wondered where the popular idiom &#8220;as drunk as a skunk&#8221; comes from? 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