moonshine

Etymology

It is formed from English moon + shine.^[2][3][4][5] Similar formations are Middle Dutch maenschijn, Middle High German mānschīn and Old Norse mánaskin,^[2] as well as Dutch maneschijn, German Mondschein and Swedish månsken.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moonlight: about 1425, in a manuscript reported by the Historical Manuscripts Commission.^[2] Etymonline says the early 15th century,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 15th century,^[4] Dictionary.com 1375–1425,^[6] and the 1989 edition of the OED about 1500.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense "appearance without substance" was there almost from the start: the Paston Letters have moonshine in the water in 1468,^[2][3] and Etymonline suggests that the idea came from that phrase, or from the notion of light without heat.^[3] Mapping Metaphor links natural light and falsity from 1500–1549.^[8] More has to hang by the moonshine, to have no basis in fact, in 1532.^[2] Grose glossed the word as a trifle, nothing at all,^[9][10] and slang had moonshine in the mustard pot, nothing.^[10] It also named a dish of egg yolks on a sweet base (about 1558–1660), and then sweet light puddings.^[2] Shakespeare used it humorously for a month in King Lear, "twelve or fourteen moonshines",^[2][11] which Johnson (1755) listed as a burlesque sense.^[11] The meaning "smuggled liquor" is first recorded in 1782,^[2][12] and Etymonline's example of 1785 refers to the coasts of Kent and Sussex, from the idea of bringing the goods in under cover of darkness.^[3][13] According to Green's the spirit varied by county, white brandy in Sussex and Kent and gin in Yorkshire.^[10] Smyth (1867) gives illicit hollands and schiedam.^[14] In the American South, where Etymonline finds it by 1829,^[3] it came to mean illegally distilled whiskey, usually made at night.^[4][15] The word moonshiner moved the same way, from a smuggler in 1860 to a distiller of illicit liquor in 1877,^[2] and the verb followed.^[2][3][10] A quotation of 1848 from central New York has moonshine as a country name for the pearly everlasting.^[16][4]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – moonlight.^[2]
• 1468 – something insubstantial or unreal, at first as moonshine in the water.^[2][3]
• 1532 – to hang by the moonshine, to have no basis in fact (obsolete).^[2]
• c. 1558 – a dish of egg yolks on a sweet base (obsolete by 1660).^[2]
• 1587 – adjective, moonlit, nocturnal.^[2]
• 1608 – a month, humorously, in Shakespeare (obsolete).^[2][11]
• 1668 – adjective, vain, empty.^[2]
• 1782 – smuggled or illicitly distilled liquor.^[2][12] Etymonline dates it to 1785.^[3]
• 1824 – verb, to deceive with empty talk (obsolete by 1852).^[2]
• 1875 – adjective, of liquor, illicitly distilled.^[10]
• 1883 – verb, to distil liquor illegally.^[3][7] The current OED has 1886,^[2] and Green's has moonshining in 1882.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The light of the moon; moonlight, now chiefly poetic and in the Caribbean.^[4][17][2]
2. Foolish or fanciful talk or ideas; nonsense: His promises of a quick fortune were pure moonshine.^[4][17][2]
3. Illegally distilled or smuggled liquor, especially corn whiskey: They kept a jar of moonshine under the porch.^[4][17][18]
4. The pearly everlasting, a plant.^[4][16]
5. (obsolete, 1608) A month.^[2][11]

Verb

1. (North America, colloquial) To distil liquor illegally.^[4][2][10]
2. (obsolete, 1824–1852) To cheat or deceive with empty talk.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. Of liquor, illegally distilled.^[10]
2. Lit by the moon; happening at night, now chiefly in the Caribbean.^[2]
3. (rare) Vain, empty, foolish.^[2]

Word family

• moonshiner
• moonshiny

Related words

• moon
• shine
• moonlight
• moonraker

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
9. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
13. ^ Cassell's Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, London: Cassell
14. ^ Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son
15. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
16. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West