It is always interesting to me find out more about our language. Every once in awhile you may hear a word or a phrase and wonder how it came to be. I have heard the expression three sheets to the wind and I finally heard an explanation of its origins. It seems to have been invented on the high seas.
This particular expression of being drunk comes from the fact that the word “sheet” is the term for a rope that controls a square sail on a ship. The sails are uncontrollable if the sheets are loose and the ship will drift until the situation is corrected. Thus came the phrase three sheets to the wind!