Mountain Dew
Homemade whiskey; moonshine from the hills.
Also called moonshine, corn juice, blockade.
Updated September 24, 2026
Mountain Dew pronunciation
/MOWN-tin DOO/
Meaning
Long before the green soda can, mountain dew meant illicit liquor cooked up off the books, the same stuff folks call moonshine, blockade, or corn juice. In Appalachian and rural Southern talk it points at that jar of white whiskey from a still in a holler. Context still matters: at a cookout somebody might mean the soft drink, but in older mountain speech the dew is the hard stuff.
How folks use it
- “Sheriff smelled mountain dew long before he found the still.”
- “Uncle kept a jug of mountain dew under the porch boards.”
Origin and etymology
Borrowed from Scotch-Irish and Highland talk, where mountain dew already meant whiskey (especially illicit Highland whisky and Irish poteen). American mountaineers applied it to homemade corn whiskey. DARE finds it scattered, more often in the South and South Midland. The soda brand later borrowed the nickname because the drink started as a whiskey mixer.
Frequently asked questions
Does Mountain Dew mean the soda?
It can. The brand took an old moonshine nickname. In redneck and mountain talk, though, mountain dew still often means homemade whiskey.