Speak-easy

Speak-easy: noun: A place where alcoholic beverages are illegally sold; specifically such a place during the period of prohibition in the United States.

Speak-easies so named were born in Pennsylvania in 1888, when the Brooks High-License Act raised the state fee for a saloon license to $500 from $50. The number of licensed bars promptly plummeted, but not all of the barkeeps unable to get a license shut their doors. Kate Hester had run a saloon in McKeesport, just outside of Pittsburgh for years; she refused to pony up the new license fee and wanted to keep from drawing attention to her newly illicit joint. When her patrons got too rowdy, she hushed them in a hoarse whisper, “speak easy boys, speak easy!” It wasn’t long before Hester’s “expression became common in McKeesport and spread to Pittsburgh,” noted the New York Times in 1890.

“Some day, perhaps, Webster’s Dictionary will take it up."--NY Times, July 6th, 1891.