Boycott

A boycott is an organised refusal to have relations of any kind with others on account of differences or disagreements in order to get them to abandon their position or policies. This eponym is derived from Captain Charles Boycott who managed the Irish estates of absentee landlord Lord Erne. In 1880, because of a rental dispute, the Irish tenant farmers on Lord Erne’s estates refused to work or co-operate with Captain Boycott who had to resort to importing labour, which in cost terms proved to be prohibitive. The word dates from 1880 when The Times used the word “boycott” to describe this new strategy employed by Irish tenant farmers.