Poteen

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pəˈtʃiːn/, IPA: /pəˈtiːn/

Alternative forms

• potcheen
• potheen
• poitin

Origin

From Irish poitín ("little pot").

Full definition of poteen

Noun

1. (Ireland) Illegally produced Irish whiskey; moonshine.
• 1835, Philip Dixon Hardy, The Poteen Still: A Tale Founded on Fact, in The Dublin Penny Journal,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.
• 1907, John Millington Synge, , “Make haste now and go up and tell your mother to hide the poteen”—his mother used to sell poteen—“for I’m after seeing the biggest party of peelers and yeomanry passing by on the rocks was ever seen on the island.”
• 2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, p. 92:He began to rove the country at night, trudging out to shebeens or crossroads dances, to the ceilidhs and poteen sessions that sometimes followed Fair Days in the small towns of Connemara.

Usage notes

This term usually refers to illegally-produced whiskey; whiskey produced in the same way but legally is usually not referred to as poteen.