Poteen
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Illegally produced Irish whiskey; moonshine. Ireland, countable, uncountable
"The Irish peasantry practice the distillation of that illicit spirituous liquor, so well known by the name of poteen whiskey, with a most unaccountable infatuation."
- 2 unlawfully distilled Irish whiskey wordnet
- 3 An unlicensed drinking establishment selling illegally produced Irish whiskey. Ireland, broadly, countable
"Kildrumferton … Pop. 9,687 […] There are nine licensed public houses; poteens many more. Illicit distillation prevails to a very great extent, the district being rarely visited by the revenue police, not indeed for years past; the presence of the excise officer in a neighbouring town is the only check."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The Irish peasantry practice the distillation of that illicit spirituous liquor, so well known by the name of poteen whiskey, with a most unaccountable infatuation."
Etymology
From Irish poitín (“little pot; poteen”), from pota (“pot”) (from Middle English potte, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“type of vessel”)) + -ín (diminutive suffix).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.