A lot of people seem to think that the drunken mother yelled "I'm a nymphomaniac. I can't help it! I like it! I like it!" That's incorrect. She said, "I'm a dipsomaniac!" Dipsomania is an old fashioned term for alchoholic.
shareThanks for that bit of education.
The screenwriter was taking a big risk using a word, dipsomania, most people don't know. I think slightly more people know nymphomaniac.
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Perthaps people don't use it NOW, but I'm thinking it must have been much more commonplace, and even "acceptable" in 1931. Warner Bros. was a studio who made gritty, realistic movies for the people, and I doubt they'd use a term that the general public wasn't familiar with. Just my opinion, though...
shareI'd have to agree with Alix1929. In fact, "dipso" was a common abbreviation used conversationally when referring to a drunk.
shareYes. I grew up watching old movies on t.v., and by some point in my teens was well familiar with the terms "dipsomania" and "dipsomaniac" from hearing them in vintage films, though I think nearly entirely just early talkies into or through the '40s. Also, I've many times heard real life modern-day people refer to this person or that being a "dipso." So, those aren't entirely abandoned terms.
shareI would have to imagine that only certain young people today would mishear the word. She very clearly repeats "dipsomaniac," and the term was very well known for generations.
shareI agree with you, it's not so much latterday viewers will "mishear" the word as not understand what it means. The word appears to have been pretty much replaced by the term alcholic since the mid 1940's so most people will not be familiar with the word unless they've read up on the period or heard it used elsewhere.
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