Word of the Day for Saturday, November 24, 2012

potvaliancy \POT-val-yuhn-see\,
noun:
Brave only as a result of being drunk.

Obed looked over his shoulder, peering at me with his little short—sighted pig's eyes, into which, in my potvaliancy, I immediately chucked half a tumbler of very strong grog, and under cover of it attempted to bolt through the scuttle.
-- Michael Scott, "Tom Cringle's Log"

His bursts of potvaliancy (the male side of the maiden Panic within his bosom) are awful to his friends.
-- George Meredith, "Beauchamp's Career," Volume 1

Potvaliancy combines the original sense of pot as "drinking cup" with valiancy, which derives from the verb valere, "to be strong."

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