"liquor from sugar cane or molasses," 1654, originally
rumbullion (1651),
rombostion (1652), of uncertain origin, perhaps from
rum (adj.).
"The chiefe fudling they make in the Island [i.e. Barbados] is Rumbullion alias Kill-Devill, and this is made of suggar cane distilled, a hott, hellish and terrible liquor." [1651]
The Eng. word was borrowed into Du., Ger., Sw., Dan., Sp., Port., It., Fr., and Rus. Used since 1800 in N.Amer. as a general (hostile) name for intoxicating liquors.
Rum-runner "smuggler or transporter of illicit liquor" is from 1920.
[ruhm] 
