Moonshine is a common slang term for home-distilled alcohol, especially in places where this production is illegal. The name is often assumed to be derived from the fact that moonshine producers and smugglers would often work at night (i.e. under the light of the moon) to avoid arrest for producing illegal liquor. The 1811 edition of the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose, defines “moonshine” as follows: “A matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle, nothing. The white brandy smuggled on the coasts of Kent and Sussex, and the gin in the north of Yorkshire, are also called moonshine.”[1] It has been suggested that the term might derive from smugglers’ explaining away their boxes and barrels as “mere moonshine” (that is, nothing). Moonshiner is a person who makes moonshine or addicted to it . Less