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▪ I. blackmail, n.
Also black-mail, black mail.
[f. mail = rent, tribute.]
1. Hist. A tribute formerly exacted from farmers and small owners in the border counties of England and Scotland, and along the Highland border, by freebooting chiefs, in return for protection or immunity from plunder.
1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 98 Quhay takis ouer sair mail, ouer mekle ferme, or ony blake maillis, fra thair tennands. c1561R. Maitland Thievis Liddesd. vi, Commoun taking of blak maill. 1567Scot. Act Jas. VI, (1597) xxi, Diuers subjects of the Inland, takis and sittis vnder their assurance, payand them black-maill, and permittand them to reif, herrie, and oppresse their Nichtbouris. 1601Act 43 Eliz. xiii, Sundry of her Maiesties louing Subiects within the sayd [4 northern] Counties..have been inforced to pay a certaine rate of money, corne, cattell, or other consideration, commonly there called by the name of Blacke maile. 1707Addr. fr. Cumbrld. in Lond. Gaz. No. 4334/2 There is, now, no Debatable Land to contend for; no Black Mail to be paid to the Leaders of the Robbers, as a Ransom. 1768Blackstone Comm. IV. 263. 1814 Scott Wav. I. 222 The boldest of them will never steal a hoof from any one that pays black-mail to Vich Ian Vohr. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvi. 344 Preferring to pay blackmail to the Scots.
2. By extension: Any payment extorted by intimidation or pressure, or levied by unprincipled officials, critics, journalists, etc. upon those whom they have it in their power to help or injure. Now usu. a payment extorted by threats or pressure, esp. by threatening to reveal a discreditable secret; the action of extorting such a payment. Also fig.
a1826R. Heber Narr. Journey Upper Prov. India (1828) I. xvi. 441 The country is burdened with a crowd of lazy, profligate, self-called suwarrs, who..obtain for the most part a precarious livelihood by spunging on the industrious tradesmen and farmers, on whom they levy a sort of ‘black⁓mail’. 1840Macaulay Clive, Ess. (1854) II. 503 Even the wretched phantom who still bore the imperial title stooped to pay this ignominious black-mail. 1860Mrs. Harvey Cruise Claymore II. 216 Arabs infesting the country, and levying blackmail on all passers-by. 1863Longfellow Birds Killingw. 36 Marauders who, in lieu of pay, Levied black mail upon the garden beds. 1927F. W. Crofts Inspector French & Starvel Tragedy viii. 121 Was it credible that a man would really pay blackmail for fear of having an obviously forged confession produced? Ibid. 122 Philpot's admission that he had submitted to blackmail was actually in his favour. 1940A. Christie One, Two, Buckle my Shoe 70 He's believed to have done a spot or two of blackmail. 1969Woman 19 Apr. 20/1 That old moan: ‘You'll be sorry when I've gone’ is a very common one. It's an emotional blackmail to keep loved ones on their toes.
†3. Law. Rent reserved in labour, produce, etc., as distinguished from ‘white rents,’ which were reserved in ‘white money’ or silver. Obs. (Coke's and Blackstone's explanation of redditus nigri, which Camden appears to have taken for rents in ‘black money’ or copper.)
1605Camden Rem. 205 Black money (what that was I know not, if it were not of Copper, as Maill and Black⁓maill). 1642Coke Inst. ii. Magna Ch. viii, Work-days, rent cummin, rent corn, etc...called Redditus nigri, black maile, that is, black rents. 1768Blackstone Comm. II. 42.
▪ II. ˈblackmail, v.
[f. prec.]
trans. To levy black mail upon; to extort money from by intimidation, by the unscrupulous use of an official or social position, or of political influence or vote. spec. to extort money from (a person) by threatening to reveal a discreditable secret.
1880L. Oliphant Gilead ix. 265 The sheikh..black-mails travellers. 1882W. B. Weeden Soc. Law Labor 176 The chief..would protect and blackmail him.
Hence ˈblackmailed ppl. a., that is subjected to blackmail; also absol. (with the), the person on whom blackmail is levied; ˈblackmailer, ˈblackmailing vbl. n. and ppl. a. (modern words referring chiefly to the levying of blackmail in sense 2.)
1868N. York Herald 24 Apr., The Quixotic enterprise of the lobbyists and blackmailers. 1879J. Hawthorne Laugh. Mill 108 Were I to lose all my fortune, I could, by turning black-mailer, ensure a permanent income twice as large. 1884Pall Mall G. 27 Feb. 4/1 Introducing a system of blackmailing even worse than that which prevailed before. 1884Harper's Mag. Mar. 567/1 The black-mailing vixen. 1895Westm. Gaz. 18 Feb. 2/1 There must be a distinct threat, a direct menace of the blackmailed by the black⁓mailer. 1898Ibid. 10 June 6/1 The blackmailer naturally keeps his own counsel as well as the money, and the black⁓mailed submits in silence. 1950A. Christie Murder is Announced xxiii. 238 He hadn't the faintest idea he knew anything to blackmail her about. |