drunken (adj.)

full form of the past participle of drink. Now chiefly as an adjective, "inebriated;" that sense was in Old English druncena. The meaning "habitually intoxicated" is by 1540s. Also, of things, "soaked, saturated" (early 15c.). Figurative sense of "acting as if drunk, uneven, unsteady" is by 1786.  Related: Drunkenly. In the sense "addicted to drink, habitually inebriated" Middle English also had drunc-wile (c. 1200); drunkensom (mid-13c.).