Moonlight, 顧名思義，"月光"的意思，最初出現在喬叟的作品中。莎士比亞在他的《威尼斯商人》（Merchant of Venice "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank"）和《溫莎的風流娘兒們》(Merry Wives of Windsor "Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, till Candle, and Starlight, and Moonshine be out") 將這個詞擬人化。
15世紀中期的一位作家將 "moonshine" 賦予了新的意思， 他這樣寫到, "If Sir Thomas Howys wer...made by leve and put in hope of the moone shone in the water and I wot nat what." "Moonshine in water"和后來的 "moonshine"可以解釋為"不真實的東西"。16世紀， "to hang by the moonshine"用來表示"無緣無故的"，"毫無根據的"。
"Moonshine"作為形容詞，出現在斯威夫特《格列佛游記》中，"It being like a moonshine night"此處的"Moonshine"有"月照的""有月光的"的意思。
雖然"Moonshine"現在表示在美國南部地區非法制造的谷物蒸餾烈酒，但"Moonshine"一詞用作這個意思，最早源于英格蘭。在Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) 給"Moonshine"一詞解釋如下: "A matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle, nothing. The white brandy smuggled on the coasts of Kent and Sussex is called moonshine."
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