‘beer goggles’: meaning and origin

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Of U.S. College slang origin, the colloquial expression beer goggles designates:

The effects of alcohol thought of metaphorically as a pair of goggles that alter a person’s perceptions especially by making others appear more attractive than they actually are.
—Definition from Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

—Cf. also the expression rose-coloured spectacles.

The expression beer goggles occurs, for example, in the following from The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Wednesday 30th August 2023 [page 13, column 1]:

Scientists pour cold water on ‘beer goggles’ idea of attraction
Linda Geddes
Science correspondent
If you thought beauty was in the eye of the beer holder, think again. Scientists have poured cold water—or rather, vodka—on the existence of “beer goggles”: the idea that alcohol makes other people appear better looking. It may, however, arm you with the “liquid courage” to approach attractive people, the research suggests.
The term “beer goggles” is said to have been coined by male North American university students in the 1980s.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the expression beer goggles that I have found:

1-: From Classifieds, published in The Campus: Student newspaper of Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vermont, USA) of 22nd February 1985 [page 20, column 4]:

Mr. G.—NEXT TIME WIPE OFF THE BEER GOGGLES BEFORE GOING INTO ACTION, O.K.?

2-: From Hey, cuz, like you’re a real mook if you can’t dig this lingo, by Don Edwards, Herald-Leader columnist, about “Lexington teen-age” lingo, written in collaboration with students and teachers of Henry Clay High School, Lexington, published in the Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky, USA) of Thursday 10th October 1985 [page B1, column 2]:

When you wake up with a hangover, you’ve “got your beer goggles on.” (Bloodshot eyes, maybe?)

3-: From Personals, published in The Penn: Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA) of Wednesday 23rd October 1985 [page 12, column 1]:

Lu-Ann—Happy 21st you wild woman! Let’s get those beer googles on! ZTA Love and ine [?], Cindi

4-: From Quick flash leaves lasting burn, by Tom Camp, staff writer, published in The Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA) of Monday 16th March 1987 [page 10, column 3]—The Daily Tar Heel is the student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

Spring Break comes every year, just like Girl Scout cookies, leading thousands of fed-up academicians to sandy shores much closer to the equator. But behind the shade of the palms and through the blur of beer goggles, there are some who have been waiting for Spring Break, just like us. Only for different reasons.

5-: From Breaking Away, by Sam Hodges, of The Sentinel staff, about “a group of Purdue students on their Spring Break trip to Daytona Beach”, published in The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida, USA) of Thursday 19th March 1987 [page E-6, column 2]:

When they got back to their room, about 6:30 a.m., Scott wasn’t there. They went to sleep and woke about noon. Scott still wasn’t there.
They regarded his absence with a mixture of concern and jealousy. “He either got lost or he got lucky,” Juan said between bites of a doughnut.
Todd said, “If you’d seen that girl he was with, you’d …”
“She wasn’t that good looking,” Juan interrupted.
“That’s what I mean.”
“Scott must have been desperate or amazingly drunk,” Juan continued. “He must have had his beer goggles on. … At the party I was looking at them and saying in my mind, ‘Scott, no!’ But he was determined.”

6-: From Teen Sex, in which “students at Central Regional High School, Berkeley Township, tell how they really learn about sex and the role it plays in their relationships”, published in The Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA) of Sunday 31st May 1987 [page F13, column 5]:

PATTI: That’s another big problem. When you go to parties and girls are out getting drunk ….
KEITH: They use that as a crutch, though.
PATTI: I mean, guys’ll sit there and ….
LAURA: If you don’t stop them ….
PATTI: They’ll think, “Let’s leave her alone, she’s had too much to drink,” but then they’ll think about it that way and say “this is a piece of meat” and “look what we can get.” It’s true.
KEITH: I think girls use it as a crutch for something they really want to do and they just use alcohol as an excuse. I know of some cases of girls who got really drunk and the guy says he’s got “the goggles” on (the beer goggles, you know). A lot of girls just use it as a crutch because they want to do it and they know if they do people will call her a slut. They just say “I was drunk, I didn’t know.”
LAURA: So why don’t you stop the girl before she gets too drunk? But no, you just say OK ….

7-: From The Latest Slang, published in The Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA) of Thursday 5th November 1987 [page 5, column 5]:

Beergoggles—When a person drinks so much that a person of the opposite sex who would normally be unattractive looks good.

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