General
pruno
What does pruno mean?
Improvised wine brewed in a cell from whatever ferments: oranges, fruit cocktail, ketchup, sugar packets, bread for the yeast, all sealed in a plastic bag and hidden warm for days. Tastes like the inside of a bin and can put you in the infirmary — botulism outbreaks from pruno are a documented thing — but it gets you drunk, which is the entire point.
"They found a bag of pruno fermenting behind his locker, smelled the whole block out."
Origin
American prison slang, mid-20th century. The CDC has published case reports on botulism outbreaks tied to pruno batches.
Frequently asked questions
What does pruno mean?
Pruno is homemade prison hooch, an improvised alcohol fermented from fruit, sugar, and bread. It's brewed secretly by inmates using whatever ingredients they can gather.
How do you use pruno in a sentence?
"They got caught brewing pruno in a trash bag under the bunk." It refers to the makeshift wine made behind bars.
Where does pruno come from?
Pruno originated in prisons, where inmates without access to alcohol ferment fruit (often prunes, which gave it the name), sugar, and bread into a crude wine. The name is tied directly to that improvised jailhouse brewing.
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Vocabulary Flow — saved to your collection.
