Meaning:
slang To become mildly intoxicated without becoming completely drunk.
Primarily heard in US.
Examples:
- At my age I can't go out drinking all night long anymore, but I still like
to catch a buzz on the weekend.
- Sure, I'll catch a buzz from time to time, but I worry about guys who have
to get blackout drunk whenever we go out.
- Well, Callie must have caught a buzz already because she's all happy and
giggly.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com [edited]
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Hemingway's book "The Sun Also Rises" had a scene where Basque peasants and two
American writers took turns to drink from a wineskin on a bus to Pamplona in
northern Spain. There, one writer bought two leather bottles, went to a wine-shop,
and the girl there filled them up for him.
This reminded me of the late 70s when I used to bring my own bottle to a grocery
store where they filled it with vinegar or soy-sauce in big earthen-ware jars
using a funnel and a one-catty wooden ladle. We even had an idiom: to say
someone had kids old enough to be sent for soy-sauce meant a long time had passed.
Today, wineskins seem out of fashion but southern European vintage can be had on
the cheap at the local grocery store. Since reading the book, I have caught
quite a few buzzes over vinos from all over Italy and Spain.
