poteen

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• potcheen
• potheen
• poitin

Etymology

From Irish poitín (“little pot”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pəˈtʃiːn/, IPA: /pəˈtiːn/

Noun

poteen (countable and uncountable; plural poteens)

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, The Aran Islands,

      “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.

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Manx

Noun

poteen m

1. poteen

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
poteen	photeen	boteen
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.