moonshine
Homemade liquor, usually clear corn whiskey made off the books.
Also called white lightning, corn liquor, mountain dew.
Updated September 24, 2026
moonshine pronunciation
/MOON-shine/
Meaning
In redneck and mountain talk, moonshine is the jar liquor: clear, unaged whiskey cooked in a still, often from corn. Folks also call it white lightning or corn liquor. It got tied to hollers, backwoods stills, and dodging the tax man. These days you can buy legal bottles labeled moonshine, but the old word still smells like a secret fire in the woods.
How folks use it
- “Uncle Roy kept a jug of moonshine under the seat of the truck.”
- “They say that batch of moonshine will knock your boots clean off.”
Origin and etymology
English used moonshine for illicit liquor by the late 1700s, from nighttime smuggling under moonlight. The word stuck hard in the American South and Appalachia, where homemade corn whiskey and tax fights made the trade part of mountain life. Southern U.S. use shows up by the early 1800s.
Frequently asked questions
Is all moonshine illegal?
The classic sense is liquor made outside the law. Legal distilleries sell "moonshine" now too, but porch talk still points first at the homemade jar.