speakeasy
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Deverbal from speak easy (= speak quietly [interj.]); for the history, see Wikipedia at speakeasy § Etymology.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]speakeasy (plural speakeasies or speakeasys)
- (historical) An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.
- Synonyms: blind pig, blind tiger
- 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 90:
- Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.
- 2020, David Rosen, Prohibition New York City, Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 39:
- Retuning[sic] to Gotham, he came to intimately know Manhattan's speakeasy scene. “At a speakeasy,” Hirschfeld acknowledged, “you had to be known to get in...each place had its own clientele.” Membership cards, really fake IDs, were common.
Usage notes
[edit]- The term conveys connotations of a classy establishment—in which some require a coat and tie—compared with a more downmarket blind pig or blind tiger.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]illegal saloon operated during the Prohibition period