In context

Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This… BB p.xxviii ¶4

Here: The passage uses discontented in its ordinary adjective sense of dissatisfied and uneasy in mind. It says drinkers are restless, irritable and uneasy until a few drinks bring back their sense of ease and comfort.

For a reader in 1939 the word was plain, familiar English. Webster's Collegiate (5th ed., 1939 printing) defines it as "Dissatisfied; uneasy in mind." The 1913 Revised Unabridged gives "Dissatisfied; uneasy in mind; malcontent," and Webster's 1828 gives "Uneasy in mind; dissatisfied; unquiet." The Century Dictionary (1911) agrees, so the sense held steady across more than a century. Etymonline dates the adjective discontent to the mid-15th century, built from dis- and content.

Its sense has barely moved since. The modern dictionaries in the material (WordNet, the American Heritage Dictionary, Wiktionary) say "dissatisfaction or restless longing" or "Restlessly unhappy." Those glosses stress restlessness a little more than the older ones, which lean on unease of mind. The dictionaries here do not show a real change of meaning, only a shift in emphasis. (The Collegiate entry is a machine transcription of the scan, so check the entry image before quoting it.)

In this passage the 1939 sense matters because the word sits in a series with restless and irritable. All three describe an inner state of unease, not a visible act or a moral failing, and that unease is relieved only by "the sense of ease and comfort" a drink brings. The reader is meant to see the drinker's normal condition as an uncomfortable, unsatisfied state, which is why the alcoholic life "seems the only normal one" to them. The older meaning, uneasy in mind, fits that picture of a mind that cannot rest.

Usages

• BB p.317 ¶3 “When I am unwilling to do the right thing, I become restless, irritable, and discontent.”
• 12&12 p.118 ¶1 “After the husband joins A.A., the wife may become discontented, even highly resentful”
• “And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him.” — Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
• “discontented citizens make bad subjects” — Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
• He sat through the whole dinner discontented, though nothing was wrong that he could name. illustration, written for this note
• The discontented clerk watched the clock all afternoon, uneasy and unable to settle to anything. illustration, written for this note

Written by Claude (sonnet) from the dictionaries and passages of the lookup; every quotation in it was checked against them, and what could not be found was left out. A study aid, not a source.

The dictionaries of 1939

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

WordNet 3.0 (Princeton, 2006)

In the Book 3

Alcoholics Anonymous 2

• BB p.xxviii ¶4 …from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions 1

• 12&12 p.118 ¶1 …a long period of patient striving may be necessary. After the husband joins A.A., the wife may become discontented, even highly resentful that Alcoholics Anonymous has done the very thing that all her years of devotion had…

Linked from

• BB p.xxviii ¶4 “discontented”