Blackmail

At first glance, one would think that this word must have something to do with threatening letters of extortion but this would be far from the truth. It has nothing whatsoever to do with postal mail nor has it anything to do with medieval chain mail worn by soldiers. The ‘mail’ in this particular context is the Old Norse mal meaning a contract or agreement and later the money or tithes attached to such an agreement. This then gave rise to an old Scots word maill, spelt in various ways, which meant rent. Rent used to be paid with what was known as ‘white’ money or silver coin. During the 16th and 17th centuries, some Scottish chieftains used to run the equivalent of protection rackets in the fertile Border region. Farmers on both sides of the border were threatened with pillage and worse if they did not pay up. They had to pay legitimate rents with silver or white money and now this enforced extra rent or maill. Obviously, the opposite of ‘white’ legitimate rent became black in their eyes. Moreover, the colour black had long been associated with the darker side of human nature and so this illegal, extortionate rent came to be known as blackmail. By the early 19th century, the meaning was extended to any type of extortion, for money or otherwise.