Barrie Akin writes:

 

As for "crapula" as an English word, there is an early instance of it. It is in Florio's Italian - English dictionary of 1611 as the English meaning of "crapola".

Florio's dictionary is also available on line. Amazing!

Florio appears as a minor character in Anthony Burgess's 'Nothing Like the Sun' (1964, from memory) and (again from memory) Burgess uses both 'crapula' and 'crapulous' in his works. I don't have immediate access to my copies of 'Nothing Like the Sun' and 'Earthly Powers' but those are the novels in which I recall Burgess uses them. There are probably others.

 

P.S.  Apologies - it is late here in England and I have just realised that I have misread Florio.

He gives 'crapola' as a variant of 'crapula' and then defines 'crapula' without using any English variant of it. So 'crapula' appears in an English work in 1611, but only as a foreign word.


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