Bootlegger? Scofflaw?

Hey everyone, I was watching the excellent documentary Prohibition by Ken Burns this week and learned about the origins of a few English words. Prohibition refers to the period of time when alcohol was illegal in the US. It is a good documentary you should check it out!





A bootlegger is someone who makes, sells or transports alcohol illegally. It came from the U.S. state of Maine (where they had banned alcohol) , where some men would stand on street corners with a bottle of alcohol in their boot down their pant's leg. They would offer people a quick drink and pull out the bottle and pour them a glass~!


Nowadays, it means someone selling or making anything illegally. Often, you will hear about bootlegs. This usually refers to illegal recordings of live concerts, music or movies.

I love going to music festivals but it is so expensive I have to make bootlegs to pay for my tickets...

A scofflaw apparently was invented in a newspaper contest where they wanted to make a word for someone who blatantly ignored the law. 

It comes from the verb to scoff, meaning to laugh at something because you think it is stupid or ridiculous. Scoff was combined with the word law, so scofflaw literally means to laugh at the law.

A: Jane's such an innocent girl.

B: Hrmf. (suppressed laugh)

A: What was that? What are you scoffing at?

B: Um, Jane's had like 20 boyfriends...

A: What?!?! REALLY!?!? She looks so sweet....

B: Yeah, she's a total player.

So a scofflaw is someone who laughs at laws they think are stupid. They ignore it and break the law all the time.

Edgar's a real scofflaw he's always speeding.

 Speeding = driving over the speed limit

These are old words, scofflaw is still sometimes used as is the noun bootlegs but I rarely hear bootlegger as these days alcohol is legal in the US again.

Have a nice weekend,

Phil