Blackmail - Wiktionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:blackmailWikipedia

Etymology

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From black + mail (“a piece of money”). Compare Middle English blak rente (“a type of blackmail levied by Irish chieftains”).

The word is variously derived from the tribute paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to border reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment. This tribute was paid in goods or labour, in Latin reditus nigri (“black mail”); the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi (“white rent”), denoting payment by silver.

McKay derives it from two Scottish Gaelic words blàthaich, pronounced (the th silent) bl-aich, "to protect" and màl (“tribute, payment”). He notes that the practice was common in the Scottish Highlands as well as the Borders.

More likely, from black + Middle English mal, male, maile (“a payment, rent, tribute”), from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement, lawsuit, terms, bargaining”), from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”); related to Old English mæðel (“meeting, council”), mæl (“speech”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌸𐌻 (maþl, “meeting place”), from Proto-Germanic *maþlą (“gathering, agreement”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to give advice, measure”). From the practice of freebooting clan chieftains who ran protection rackets against Scottish farmers. Black from the evil of the practice.

Expanded c. 1826 to any type of extortion money. Compare silver mail (“rent paid in money”) (1590s); buttock mail (“fine imposed for fornication”) (1530s, Scottish).

Pronunciation

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• IPA(key): /ˈblækˌmeɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækmeɪl
• Hyphenation: black‧mail

Noun

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blackmail (uncountable)

1. The extortion of money or favors by threats of public accusation, critique, or exposure.
2. (by extension) Compromising material that can be used to extort someone.
   1. (BDSM) A type of roleplay where the submissive shares information that may be exploited by the dominant.
3. (archaic) A form of protection money (or corn, cattle, etc.) anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to the allies of robbers in order to be spared from pillage.
4. (England law, historical) Black rent; rent paid in corn, meat, or the lowest coin, as opposed to white rent, which was paid in silver.

Derived terms

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• emotional blackmail
• postattack blackmail

Related terms

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• graymail
• greenmail
• whitemail

Translations

[edit] extortion of money by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure

Albanian: shantazh (sq) m Arabic: اِبْتِزَاز (ar) m (ibtizāz) Armenian: շորթում (hy) (šortʻum), շանտաժ (hy) (šantaž) Azerbaijani: şantaj Basque: xantaia Belarusian: шанта́ж m (šantáž), вымага́льніцтва n (vymahálʹnictva) Bengali: ব্ল্যাকমেইল (blêkmeil) Bulgarian: изну́дване (bg) n (iznúdvane), шанта́ж (bg) m (šantáž) Catalan: xantatge m Chinese: Mandarin: 勒索 (zh) (lèsuǒ), 敲詐 / 敲诈 (zh) (qiāozhà), 誅求 / 诛求 (zh) (zhūqiú), 逼勒 (zh) (bīlè), 要挾 / 要挟 (zh) (yāoxié), 訛詐 / 讹诈 (zh) (ézhà) Czech: (extortion of money) vydírání (cs) n Danish: afpresning c, pengeafpresning c Dutch: chantage (nl) m Esperanto: ĉantaĝo Estonian: väljapressimine (et), šantaaž (et) Finnish: kiristys (fi) French: chantage (fr) m Galician: chantaxe (gl) f Georgian: შანტაჟი (šanṭaži) German: Erpressung (de) f Greek: εκβιασμός (el) m (ekviasmós) Ancient Greek: ἐκβιασμός m (ekbiasmós) Hebrew: סְחִיטַת f (s'khitá) Hindi: भयादोहन m (bhayādohan), ब्लैकमेल m (blaikmel) Hungarian: zsarolás (hu) Icelandic: fjárkúgun (is) f Ido: extorso (io) Indonesian: pemerasan (id) Italian: ricatto (it) m Japanese: 恐喝 (ja) (kyōkatsu), 強請 (ja) (kyōsei) Kazakh: бопса (kk) (bopsa) Khmer: បស័យ្ហគ្រាស (paʼsayyĕəʼhaʼ kriəh) Korean: 협박(脅迫) (ko) (hyeopbak), 강청(強請) (gangcheong) Kyrgyz: шантаж (ky) (şantaj) Lao: ການຂູ່ເອົາເງິນ (kān khū ē ʼ ngœn) Latvian: šantāža f Lithuanian: šantažas m Luxembourgish: Chantage m Macedonian: уцена f (ucena) Malagasy: soloky (mg) Malay: peras ugut Maltese: rikatt m Norwegian: Bokmål: utpressing m or f, utpresning m or f Persian: شانتاژ (fa) (šântâž), باج‌گیری (bâj-giri), تَهدید (fa) (tahdid) Polish: szantaż (pl) m Portuguese: extorsão (pt) f, chantagem (pt) f Romanian: șantaj (ro) n Russian: шанта́ж (ru) m (šantáž), вымога́тельство (ru) n (vymogátelʹstvo) (extortion), рэ́кет (ru) m (rɛ́ket) Scots: blackmail Scottish Gaelic: màl dubh m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: у̏цена f, у̏цјена f Latin: ȕcena (sh) f, ȕcjena (sh) f Slovak: vydieranie n Slovene: izsiljevanje n Spanish: chantaje (es) m, extorsión (es) f Swedish: utpressning (sv) c Tajik: шантаж (tg) (šantaž), таҳдид (tahdid) Thai: การรีดเอาทรัพย์ (gaan-rîit-ao-sáp), รีดเอาทรัพย์ (rîit-ao-sáp), แบล็กเมล์ (blɛ́k-mee) Turkish: şantaj (tr) Turkmen: şantaž Ukrainian: шанта́ж m (šantáž), вимага́ння n (vymahánnja) Urdu: بِلَیک میل m (bilaik mel) Uzbek: shantaj (uz) Vietnamese: tống tiền (vi) Welsh: blacmel m, (literary) bygythbris m

Verb

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blackmail (third-person singular simple present blackmails, present participle blackmailing, simple past and past participle blackmailed)

1. (transitive) To extort money or favors from (a person) by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, such as injury to reputation, distress of mind, false accusation, etc. He blackmailed a businesswoman by threatening to expose an alleged fraud.
2. (Kenya) To speak ill of someone; to defame someone.

Derived terms

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• blackmailable
• blackmailee
• blackmailer
• blackmaily
• cyberblackmail
• unblackmailed

Translations

[edit] to extort money

Arabic: اِبْتِزَازَ (ar) (ibtizāza) Armenian: շանտաժի ենթարկել (šantaži entʻarkel) Belarusian: шантажы́раваць impf (šantažýravacʹ), вымага́ць impf (vymahácʹ) Bulgarian: изну́двам (bg) impf (iznúdvam), изну́дя pf (iznúdja), шантажи́рам impf or pf (šantažíram) Chinese: Mandarin: 勒索 (zh) (lèsuǒ), 敲詐 / 敲诈 (zh) (qiāozhà), 誅求 / 诛求 (zh) (zhūqiú), 逼勒 (zh) (bīlè), 要挾 / 要挟 (zh) (yāoxié), 訛詐 / 讹诈 (zh) (ézhà) Czech: vydírat impf Danish: afpresse Dutch: chanteren (nl) Esperanto: ĉantaĝi Finnish: kiristää (fi) French: faire du chantage, faire chanter (fr) German: erpressen (de) Greek: εκβιάζω (el) (ekviázo) Ancient Greek: ἐκβιάζω (ekbiázō), συκοφαντέω (sukophantéō) Hebrew: סָחַט (he) (sakhát) Hungarian: zsarol (hu) Icelandic: kúga fé út úr e-m Ido: extorsar (io) Indonesian: please add this translation if you can Italian: ricattare (it) Japanese: せびる (ja) (sebiru), 強要する (ja) (きょうようする, kyōyō suru) Korean: 공갈하다 (ko) (gonggalhada) Luxembourgish: erpressen Macedonian: уценува impf (ucenuva), уцени pf (uceni) Malay: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: utpresse Polish: szantażować (pl) impf Portuguese: chantagear (pt), extorquir (pt) Romanian: a șantaja (ro) Russian: шантажи́ровать (ru) impf (šantažírovatʹ), вымога́ть (ru) impf (vymogátʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: уце́нити pf, уције́нити pf Latin: ucéniti (sh) pf, ucijéniti (sh) pf Slovak: vydierať impf Slovene: izsiljevati (sl) impf Spanish: chantajear (es) Swedish: utpressa (sv), pressa ut Thai: รีดเอาทรัพย์ (rîit-ao-sáp) Ukrainian: шантажува́ти impf (šantažuváty), вимага́ти impf (vymaháty) Vietnamese: doạ tố giác Welsh: blacmelio (cy)

See also

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• extortion
• hush money
• protection racket

References

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• “blackmail”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Scots

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Etymology

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From black (“bad”) +‎ mail (“rent”).

Pronunciation

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• IPA(key): /ˈblɑkʰɱɛl/, /ˈblɑkʰɱɪl/
• (Southern Scotland) IPA(key): /ˈblɒːkʰɱɑːl/

Noun

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blackmail (uncountable)

1. (archaic) A tribute paid, usually in kind, to reivers or raiders as a form of protection money.
2. Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation.

Verb

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blackmail (third-person singular simple present blackmails, present participle blackmailin, simple past and past participle blackmailt)

1. To extort money from another by means of intimidation.