Hooch

Hooch is a colloquial term for alcoholic beverages (also spelled hootch). Originally used to mean specifically "cheap whiskey"(1897) it is a shortened form of Hoochinoo (1877), a liquor made by Alaskan Indians, from the name of a native tribe in Alaska whose distilled liquor was a favorite with miners in 1898 Klondike gold rush. The tribe's name is said by OED to be from Tlingit Hutsnuwu, lit. "grizzly bear fort."