potvaliant (POT-val-iant) adjective, also pot-valiant

Showing courage under the influence of drink.
Such courage is also known as Dutch courage.

Interesting word. I'm wondering if you could skew the meaning just a bit and use it to describe a character who showed false courage that wasn't bolstered by alcohol necessarily, but perhaps another less-than-desireable catalyst. Like anger.

People use alcohol to get them through all sorts of things, so it's not surprising that it is used to get through situations that require courage. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if alcoholism isn't a search for courage. The prop is used to get past something--whether it's personality difficulties, or economic/physical/mental difficulties. People who get trained to use a more socially acceptable prop usually fare better when they're trying to quit an addiction--whether it's alcohol or anything else. Generally an addiction is replaced before it is overcome. If it is ever overcome.

Potvaliant. I have in mind a young man in a grey Civil War uniform who signed up at the beginning of the war when emotions were running high and it was the noble, correct thing for an upstanding, healthy young man to do. Back when the war was sure to be short-lived and successful. Then the years stretch on and on. He can't quit. He can't do less than his best. He makes his way up in ranks, but honestly hates every minute. After he's seen friends die. Or worse seen them return home maimed and broken. Those ones are the ones he envies, but he cannot find a way that his conscience will allow him to quit the task he's taken up.

Then he discovers the power of drink. That it can soothe his restless mind and let him sleep. That it can help him forget the horrors of what he endures--and let him sleep. That it will allow him to lead his men into the next fray with a confident voice and hands that don't shake in terror. Only they do shake. He just thinks they don't.

In the end, what happens to this young man? Does he survive and find himself to be potvaliant for the rest of his life? Is that the greater battle in the end? Why would he fight it? What would the stakes be that would make him seek out true courage.

Interesting story ideas???? No stealing! You know what, I'm not worried. Even if one of you readers took this idea and ran with it, we'd still come up with two different stories. I'm willing to bet on that!