drunk as Cooter Brown

drunk as Cooter Brown pronunciation

/drunk az KOO-ter BROWN/

Meaning

Says somebody is falling-down drunk, past tipsy and into legend territory. You hear it on porches and at ballgames across the South when somebody has had way too much. Folks also say "drunker than Cooter Brown," same idea. Nobody needs to know who Cooter was. The name alone means the bar is closed for that person.

How folks use it

• “He showed up to the fish fry drunk as Cooter Brown.”
• “Don't hand him them truck keys. He's drunker than Cooter Brown.”

Origin and etymology

Cooter Brown is a Southern folk name for an extreme drunk, not a proven historical person. A popular Civil War yarn claims he stayed liquored up so neither side would draft him, but that story is folklore. Print cites show up by the 1930s, often in Black Southern speech, and "drunk as a coot" or "drunk as a cooter" is an older cousin. Arkansas speakers were already saying "drunker than Cooter Brown" mid-century.

Frequently asked questions