bootlegger

American  

[boot-leg-er] / ˈbutˌlɛg ər /

noun

1. a person who makes or sells liquor or other goods illegally.

   A bootlegger named George Cassiday secretly supplied members of Congress with liquor during Prohibition.

   The sort of criminals of interest to the piracy commission are large-scale DVD bootleggers, not individual downloaders.

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Etymology

Origin of bootlegger

bootleg ( def. ) + -er ¹

Explanation

A bootlegger is someone who sells illegal goods. Today, bootleggers are most likely to sell pirated movies or music. This word comes from bootleg and, in particular, the trick of hiding a flask inside a boot. Bootleggers smuggle illegal things, and sometimes legal goods too, in order to avoid paying taxes. During Prohibition in the U.S., bootleggers supplied speakeasies with alcohol. There are a number of other, less common words inspired by bootlegger: meatlegger was coined during World War II's meat rationing and booklegger refers to someone who imports banned books.

Example Sentences

Abita, which has long made a non-alcoholic root beer with Louisiana cane sugar, unveiled Bayou Bootlegger at the end of 2015.

From Washington Post • Apr. 19, 2016

He headed down Bootlegger Trail until he came to the dirt road that led to that trailer, which had three lawn mowers, several loose car tires and a boat in the front yard.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 8, 2012

Turn left and he would be on Bootlegger Trail, a two-lane highway with a 70 mph speed limit shooting straight out into the country.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 8, 2012

Last autumn onetime Bootlegger William V. Dwyer decided to bolster up his feeble Americans, tail-enders in their group since 1929, by buying $35,000 worth of new players.

From Time Magazine Archive

Not to be outhandled, other truckers are known as Popper Stopper, Bootlegger, Mule Skinner and Silver Fox.

From Time Magazine Archive