blackmail
意味
- ゆすり,恐かつ
- ゆすり取った金(品)
- 〈人〉をゆする;〈人〉をゆすって(…)させる《+名+into+名(doing)》
例文
Tom was blackmailed by Mary.
トムはメアリーに脅迫されていた。
語源
英語の原文（Wiktionary）
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.