Moonlighting

Origin of: Moonlighting

Moonlighting

Taking on a second job to supplement one’s income, usually at night, hence the name, dates in this sense from 1957 according to the OED. Earlier but now obsolete usage from 1882, moonlighters were members of the Irish Land League who carried out night attack on tenants who continued to pay rents in defiance of the Land League’s boycott on rent payments.