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	Binge

Going on 'a binge' has a long linguistic history. It means 'a heavy drinking bout', and goes right back to the 1850s, both as a noun and as a verb - you didn't need the word 'drinking': 'binge' meant drinking in those days.

But, you see, in recent times, all sorts of other meanings have come along. In the 1970s, people referred to eating heavily as 'binge eating' - it was a disorder, an actual medical condition, you would see a doctor about it.

And then, the wheel turned full circle. 'Binge drinking' - people who drink in order to get drunk, drinking large quantities quickly, and for fun. And so you get other uses then like, 'he's a binge drinker' or 'they're binge drinkers'. And then, not just alcoholic drink, any kind of stuff you put into our body. Somebody was on a caffeine binge - too much coffee. A chocolate binge - too much chocolate. People now go on binge shopping sprees - binge shopping. And also, of course, you get it in the context of drugs - cocaine binge, crack binge.

And the people who do these things? They're bingers.

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