Thing Not To Be Today: bouldered.

Bouldered means high on drugs.

It's a good, vivid expression. The person in question will be sensible as someone who's been hit on the head by a boulder; as clear-thinking as a boulder; and will walk as steadily as if the floor is strewn with boulders.

There are a dozen unanswerable and excellent arguments to be made against being bouldered, many of which concern the cost to health, wealth and society, and of course you've heard them all.

But it's worth mentioning because the word bouldered has a rather satisfying derivation.

Thing Not To Be Today: bouldered. This is like being stoned, but even worse.

Neat, huh?

The word boulder probably comes from Scandinavia. There's a Swedish dialect word bullersten, from the Old Swedish bulder, rumbling, and sten, stone.

Stoned, as in under the influence of drugs (or, to begin with, alcoholic drink) refers to being so drunk as to be as as lively as a stone.