Blackmail

How to spell blackmail

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blackmail

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blackmail mean?

1. nounThe act of demanding money or favours from someone by threatening to reveal damaging information about them.
2. verbTo demand money or favours from someone by threatening to reveal something damaging about them.

Blackmail in a sentence

• noun

  The executive paid the blackmail rather than risk exposure of the scandal.

• verb

  The hacker tried to blackmail the company with stolen customer records.

• noun

  Police treated the anonymous letter as a clear case of blackmail.

• verb

  They attempted to blackmail him over a private photograph.

Where does blackmail come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word has a surprisingly literal Scottish origin and nothing to do with the postal system. The 'mail' part comes from the Old Norse and Scots word 'mal', meaning agreement, tribute, or rent, which itself goes back to a sense of 'speech' or 'a formal bargain'. In the sixteenth century, chieftains and freebooting clans along the Scottish and English border forced farmers to pay protection money so their cattle and crops would be left alone; this illegitimate levy was called 'black mail', the 'black' marking it as sinister or unlawful, in contrast to legitimate rent paid in silver, which was sometimes called 'white rent'. From this concrete border-country practice the word broadened to mean any extortion of money or favours through threats. The spelling can fool people because it looks like 'black' plus the everyday 'mail' you post, but the resemblance is pure coincidence.

How the word is built

• black (sinister, illegitimate)
• mail (from Scots 'mal': rent, tribute, payment)