Ever wonder where the compound word, nightclub came from? Why night? Why club? Does the name come from a club back in the day which only operated at night? I got asked this question recently and I didn’t have the answer so I though I’d find it.

During Prohibition, there were illegal nightclubs which were open at night, but they were called, speakeasy bars. Speakeasy bars were establishments which served alcohol and the term comes from a customer’s manner of ordering alcohol without raising suspicion — a bartender would tell a customer to be quiet and "speak easy".
The term night is used to refer to an evening focusing on a specific genre, such as "retro music night" or a "singles night."

Night comes from the club being open and operating at night and club comes from it once being a secret place to buy and drink illegal alcohol.

With the withdrawal of Prohibition in February 1933 nightclubs were revived and one didn’t have to ‘speakeasy’ to attend them, nightclubs such as New York's Stork Club, El Morocco Copacabana and the Cotton Club was all popular nightclubs at the time. The ‘nightclub’ did not reach popularity until the Disco era.

By the late 1970s many major US cities had thriving Disco clubs a.k.a. discothèques (comes from the French word, discothèque) and private loft parties where DJs would play Disco hits through PA systems. Some of the most prestigious clubs had elaborate lighting systems that throbbed to the beat of the music. The largest UK cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, London and several key European places like Paris, Berlin, Ibiza, Rimini also played a significant role in the evolution of clubbing, DJ culture and nightlife.

In Italian and Spanish nightclubs are referred to as discoteca. In German they’re referred to as Disko or Diskothek. In Japanese disuko refers to an older, smaller, less fashionable venue; while kurabu refers to a more recent, larger, more popular venue.

Here’s a little piece of information you may not know. After the fall of communism in the Czech Republic and Romania, "nightclub" or "night club" became a common euphemism for a brothel. So, be careful where and with whom you invite to a nightclub.

What about the term superclub? It’s the same as a nightclub and comes from the same background only difference is it’s owned and managed by a dance music record label, such as The Hacienda club, which was owned by Factory Records.

The term has also been used to describe large, multistory, high-capacity high-profile nightclubs, such as Pacha, Studio 54 and Canada’s own The Guvernment Entertainment Complex.