A market research company won some valuable column inches the other week by producing a list of words. Perspectus Global surveyed 2,000 adults and found 20 words that are, apparently, incomprehensible to the under-thirties. None of these words is obscure. But the list does remind us that as new words join the language, others slip away, either because of changing fashion or because the thing they describe no longer exists.

You couldn’t say that about “sozzled”, apparently unknown to 40 per cent of young adults. It’s just that they are constantly inventing euphemisms of their own. The slang lexicographer Jonathon Green has collected thousands of words for “drunk”. His slang timeline – you can find it on the internet – tells us that between 2000 and 2017, some 62 new terms were recorded – “mullered”, “caned”, “newted”, “hog-whimpering” and “sauced” may ring a bell.