Prohibition brought a profusion of ills, one of which was the proliferation of bathtub gin. It wasn’t always gin, and it wasn’t always made in a bathtub, but it was everywhere. Anyone could fashion a still with a copper boiler, some pipe, and a few gadgets from the hardware store, and people breaking the law tended not to be fussy about recipes. White lightning, rotgut, moonshine, panther sweat—it had a hundred names and as many unpredictable ingredients, like embalming fluid or creosote. Everyone knew of someone who had gone blind, been paralyzed, or died from drinking bathtub gin. Even a smuggled-in foreign bottle with a fancy French label was no guarantee as labels could be counterfeited and the booze adulterated.
Prohibition lasted the entire decade and longer, right into the Thirties. During these years, a huge vocabulary of slang grew up around liquor and illegal bars. Here are some of the words I’ve come across that were in common use—only a few are still in use today.
LIQUOR SLANG
hooch
brown
brown plaid
coffin varnish
hair of the dog
horse liniment
panther sweat
rotgut
white lightening
monkey rum
tarantula juice
corn
giggle juice
jorum of skee
shine
snort
bootleg
belt
busthead
strike-me-dead
bathtub gin
moonshine
BAR SLANG
saloon
speakeasy
scatter
blind pig
gin mill
joint
juice joint
gin joint