Where did the phrase "doped to the gills" come from?

It comes from the environmental sciences. When you introduce a foreign chemical or substance into some body of water, it will make its way to the fish. Since fish "breathe" through their gills, water laced with some chemical will leave residue on a fish's gills. So, if you want a reliable way to find out if some body of water is contaminated, you just need to catch some fish and test their gills. You know if you have a problem if the fish are "doped to the gills".

How did that expression come to mean someone on PEDs? I have no idea.

In the early days of combating doping, scientists first developed tests that involved injecting a series of samples from athletes into the tiny majuno minnows that would matabolize the ergogenic drugs into a detectable marker that would be retained within the organs -- including the gills. At the conclusion of testing, the organs would be sampled and tested using liquid chromotagraphy to infer cheating by the athletes. A positive reading would be referred to as the test fish having been doped to the gills.

i prefer the term "lanced" myself

Fish metaphors are used for drunk people because they consume lots of liquids like a fish is imaged to do - a drunk "drinks like a fish". Someone who is very drunk is "sloshed to the gills" - ie, has drunk so much alcohol that he is filled with alcohol up to his neck (metaphorical "gills").

"Doped to the gills" borrows the "sloshed to the gills" metaphor used for drunks and applies it to dopers to mean that a doper is "very doped" or "so full of dope that he is filled with dope up to his neck."

It comes from the 19th century Scottish sport of brown trout racing. During the early summer thaw, mountain streams in Scottland fill with melting snow. Local fisherman would bring their best brown trout catch to a mountain stream and race their fish against other fisherman. They would set their fish down in a flowing, downhill portion of the river. The first fish to get caught in a net at the finish was the winner.

Cheaters realized that fish weighed down by stuffing some lead shot pellets in their gut would not try to surface and feed on flies on their way down the stream, which would usually slow down a fish. But, if a fish was over stuffed with shot pellets, the fish would be too heavy and get stuck on the bottom of the stream. The fish would be plucked out of the water and contestants would declare "Seamus O'Brien is a dirty cheat. His trout is stuffed to the gills!!!"

Naturally, the term easily migrated to the use of PEDs by replacing "stuffed" with "doped".

There was this guy, Jonathon Gill, who served over 5 years in prison in the early 2000's.

He made a lot of national headlines saying that he was going to the Olympics in the 1500.

But Gill must have been smoking dope if he thought he could really do that.

So people living in this fantasy world are doped to the Gills.

From European agents that rep Ethiopians and Moroccans...

I like gills

idk I thought I made it up in the 80s.

It comes from the phrase "stuffed to the gills" which means "so full, you can't eat any more." This seems to have come from the fact that when you stuff a fish for cooking, you fill it all the way to the gills.

In the early 20th century, "stuffed to the gills" had morphed into "soused to the gills," which meant "as drunk as could be." By the 1940s, this had morphed into "doped to the gills," which meant "as stoned as could be."

"To the gills" made it to athletics by 1976, when The Sporting News said that an East German shot-putter was "pumped to the gills" with drugs. The title of the article has a strangely contemporary ring to it: "Steroids Called Best Friends for Olympians."

clarksonxc wrote:

i prefer the term "lanced" myself

That's going to catch on.

For those of us in the know, the phrase originated in the Paleozoic era.

I think when a mid-distance runner falls during a race we should call it doing a Uceny or "pulling a Uceny."

It comes from an Italian idiom which translates: "We fill these guys up with drugs, but they really don't have an effect, just is for ...how you say?... 'placebo'"

Is there a consensus yet?