Where does the word blackmail come from

Posted on September 20,

Part of a two-week series on the pull of bad influences in our lives and in the culture. Nine letters to connote all the dirtiness and manipulation that comes with the threat of disclosure. Confidential missives that threaten to enter the wrong hands? In daytime soaps and murder mysteries, blackmail regularly happens through the transfer of mail. The first textual account of black-maill appears in a Scottish document where serial looter, one Adam Scot, ended his career with a beheading. While we may no longer think of blackmail in terms of material objects of exchange, the initial meaning of blackmail actually stays pretty close to contemporary understandings of the act. As a narrative, however, modern blackmail has evolved.

Where does the word blackmail come from

This is one of those words where I wonder what degree of literal it ever accomplished. Was it at some point actually black? And the shame of receiving one, for who would be blackmailed if they were a holy and upstanding citizen? The secret they carry is bad enough for another to extort them! What does it mean? Currently, this is demanding payment or another benefit from someone in return for not revealing compromising or damaging information about them. In the past, though, it was more like protection money from thugs and ruffians. Ah, the civility of modern extortion. What did it come from? Okay, well… unfortunately the first part of the word is not what I had hoped. However, I like to think that there are others who wanted to add a little flair to their evil-doing and made it less subtle for their victims. While I did think it would be odd to send your illegal extortion request and the information that gives you power over another through a public channel such as the post office , I was willing to let that go. This tracks with the older meaning of people essentially in a gang that demanded money from farmers and tradesmen in return for not breaking their stuff and beating them up and just taking the money anyway. This actually has a few more degrees back, but I think that makes my point! This was originally such a normal and inoffensive element, suddenly made sinister by the blackness appended up front.

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Blackmail is an act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offence, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat to do something that would cause a person to suffer embarrassment or financial loss. A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces In popular culture, 'blackmail' involves a threat to reveal or publicize either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met.

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the verb blackmail. Etymons: blackmail n. Sign in with library card. Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic. Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into blackmail, v. Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Where does the word blackmail come from

The word comes from the freebooting clan chieftains who ran protection rackets against farmers in Scotland and northern England. The custom persisted until midc. Black from the evil of the practice. The sense expanded by to mean any extortion by means of intimidation, especially by threat of exposure or scandal. Compare silver mail "rent paid in money" s ; buttock-mail Scottish, s "fine imposed for fornication. Related: Blackmailed ; blackmailing. The same root produced Middle English blake "pale," from Old English blac "bright, shining, glittering, pale;" the connecting notions being, perhaps, "fire" bright and "burned" dark , or perhaps "absence of color. Black was used of dark-skinned people in Old English. Of coffee with nothing added, attested by

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Archived from the original on 13 July One American legal scholar uses the example of a person who threatens to expose a criminal act unless he is paid money. Like Loading The meaning "fierce, terrible, wicked" is from late 14c. Retrieved 28 April Archived from the original on 12 April Archived from the original on 21 October ISBN In Blackmail. If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself subjected to blackmail, this information will, sad to say, not be of any great succor to you. The Words of the Week - Mar. So extortion means to wrench out, wrest away, or obtain by force.

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun blackmail , one of which is labelled obsolete. Etymons: black adj.

Lesser included offences Concurrence Ignorantia juris non excusat. Attach another file if needed. The outcome remained, more or less, the same. Ngrams are probably unreliable. Page , reference Or it could simply serve as a contrast to white mail — to distinguish rent paid in goods or services from rent paid with cash. Archived from the original on 19 September Toggle limited content width. More to Explore pressure. Pick the best ones! In addition to restitution of whatever has been paid to you, possible penalties for extortion in Nevada can include:. Contents move to sidebar hide. The word blackmail is variously derived from the word for mailing in modern terms, protection racket paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to Border Reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment.