”drunkard. The commonest term for one who habitually drinks to excess. The term now implies repetitious misbehavior, distinguished from alcoholic with an implication of involuntary behavior related to disease.” From a 1982 dictionary of words about alcohol.
A current dictionary lists synonyms as: drunk, alcoholic, soak (slang), drinker, lush (slang), carouser, sot, tippler, toper, wino (informal), dipsomaniac.
Equating drinker with drunkard may seem strange but temperance writers tended to make no distinction between a light drinker and a drunkard. The term was commonly used opprobriously by temperance writers at least well into the 1930s after the repeal of national prohibition.
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/Biography-D-Leigh-Colvin.html