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Added 9 October 2026

blackmail

/ˈblækˌmeɪl/ noun

Latin root: reditus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about blackmail at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The extortion of money or favors by threats of public accusation, critique, or exposure.
Compromising material that can be used to extort someone. A type of roleplay where the submissive shares information that may be exploited by the dominant.
A type of roleplay where the submissive shares information that may be exploited by the dominant.

verb

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.
To speak ill of someone; to defame someone.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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