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by Jonathon Green » Wed Mar 06, 1996 8:00 am
The drunk-o-meter or drunkometer, a device for measuring the alcoholic content of a person’s breath, and aimed at curbing the problems of drunk driving, appeared in 1934. As to its origins, I assume that its rather cumbersome syllables were thrown together by its inventors. If dictionary citations are anything to go by it flourished until 1960 when it was replaced by a more sophisticated version of the same thing, the breathalyser. Aside from any technical considerations, it might be noted that neither term, for that each describes properly what it does, could exactly be called elegant English.
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Signature: Jonathon Green