Mail that is black, hashish eaters and other weird words
They've been extending and revamping the office and I was walking around the corner to an area that's been deserted for the past few weeks. I was startled to see that ZJQ had been moved back there and he was all by his ownsome. I was joking around with him that he was cutting off my escape route that I use to 偷偷tōutōu (secretly/stealthily) sneak home early.
"This isn't acceptable!" I told him. "You could blackmail me!" He looked at me blankly. When I said 'blackmail', I used the English word because I don't know how to say it in Chinese.
"Blackmail?" he asked me, looking very blank. "You mean I could tell on you for going home early?"
"You could threaten to tell on me for going home early if I don't pay you or something," I told him.
"Ahhhhh," he said, laughing and I asked him to email me how you say 'blackmail' in Chinese.
The email from ZJQ made me laugh because it said:
Hi, Koala
I will 敲诈（or 勒索）you!!
敲诈 qiāozhà means to blackmail or to extort. Literally - knock cheat.
勒索 lèsuǒ means to extort; compel to give; fry the fat out of; exact from. Literally rein in demand.
It occurred to me that I didn't have a clue why we say 'blackmail' in English so had to scout around:
Explanation #1. Its origin had nothing to do with the post office. Mail in this sense was an old Anglo-Norse term for rent or tribute. During the time of border warfare between England and Scotland, freebooters extorted payment from farmers of the area in exchange for protection and immunity from plunder. As the inhabitants were generally very poor, the tribute was paid in "black mail," that is, grain, meat, or the lowest coinage (copper), as opposed to "white mail," which was silver. In time the word took on the meaning of any payment extorted by threat of exposure of an incriminating secret.
Explanation #2. The term Blackmail is a Scottish term and relates back to the black cattle that were common in the Scottish Highlands. These cattle were bartered and used as money, exactly how we got to todays definition of Blackmail I am not sure. One thing I am sure about is that the famous highland regiment 'The Black Watch' was originally set up as a police force to prevent the black cattle being rustled, hence the name - The Black Watch.
A bit more information on the topic. Mail is an old word meaning rent,so blackmail was originally rent paid by the use of black cattle instead of cash. Perhaps landlords became increasingly greedy and undervalued the cattle thereby pushing the blackmail up under threats of eviction if it was not paid. This could well lead to todays meaning of blackmail as a 'payment under duress or threat'. Sounds plausible.
Ernest Weekley says the rent ("mail") paid by Scottish farmers to freebooters was often paid with black cattle. The so-called rent was actually extortion, hence blackmail came to mean other forms of extortion. Weekley also says that the Black Watch were so-named because they were raised in the 18th century for service in the Highlands and were given a dark uniform to distinguish them from the "old" army.
Explanation #3. Dear Word Detective: Please tell me what the origin of the word "blackmail" is. I have been told it has to do with freelance knights whose chain mail has turned black. -- Norman Levenstein, Franklin Square, NY.
Answer: I've never heard that theory, but it does make a certain amount of sense. So these unemployed knights, desperate for moolah, became so unscrupulous that they started extorting money from people? And then their armor turned black, like a full-body mood ring? I like it. Among other things, it explains why so many lawyers wear dark gray suits.
Just kidding, of course. But the real story of blackmail is pretty interesting in its own right. In the first place, English now has two different "mails," but it used to have three. The "letter" kind of "mail" is rooted in the old German word "malha," meaning "pouch," which at first meant any kind of pouch or bag, but which in the 17th century was narrowed to mean "mail pouch." The "metal mesh armor" kind of "mail," on the other hand, comes from the Latin "macula," meaning "spot," referring to the holes in the mesh of chain mail armor.
"Blackmail," meaning the extortion of money by the use of threats, especially threats to reveal secret or embarrassing information, comes from a third, now obsolete, sense of "mail" meaning "payment" or "tax." This "mail" came originally from the Old Norse word "mal," meaning "agreement," and exists as a word today only in Scots and some dialects in northern England.
Not surprisingly, the first blackmailers were corrupt politicians, 17th century Scottish chieftains who demanded protection money from local farmers, who refused only at the risk of having their crops destroyed. The "mail," or payment, was said to be "black" probably because the color black had long been associated with darkness and evil, but it might also have been because payment was usually made in livestock, rather than in silver (which was known as "white money").
The "give me two cows or I'll burn down your farm" kind of blackmail first appeared in English around 1552, but by the early 1800's we were using "blackmail" to mean just about any sort of extortion, especially using threats to reveal secrets.
Explanation #4. There are several here.
Explanation #5. Explanation at the Curious Word Origins page. The whole page is very interesting. I didn't know the explanation of the word 'assassin' was from the Arabic word hashshashin meaning 'hashish-eater', applied in the time of the Crusades to a set of fanatical Muslims dispatched by their leader to murder the Christians; they first intoxicated themselves by eating hashish. The Assassins were founded in Persia (modern day Iran) in the 11th century and extended their influence through what is now Iraq and Syria before their destruction by the Mongols in the 13th century.
Also check out the origin of the word 'avocado'. Good grief :D I find the whole page fascinating simply because Chinese people are always asking me the origin of words and because English devours so many words from so many different places, I frequently don't know :P
"This isn't acceptable!" I told him. "You could blackmail me!" He looked at me blankly. When I said 'blackmail', I used the English word because I don't know how to say it in Chinese.
"Blackmail?" he asked me, looking very blank. "You mean I could tell on you for going home early?"
"You could threaten to tell on me for going home early if I don't pay you or something," I told him.
"Ahhhhh," he said, laughing and I asked him to email me how you say 'blackmail' in Chinese.
The email from ZJQ made me laugh because it said:
Hi, Koala
I will 敲诈（or 勒索）you!!
敲诈 qiāozhà means to blackmail or to extort. Literally - knock cheat.
勒索 lèsuǒ means to extort; compel to give; fry the fat out of; exact from. Literally rein in demand.
It occurred to me that I didn't have a clue why we say 'blackmail' in English so had to scout around:
Explanation #1. Its origin had nothing to do with the post office. Mail in this sense was an old Anglo-Norse term for rent or tribute. During the time of border warfare between England and Scotland, freebooters extorted payment from farmers of the area in exchange for protection and immunity from plunder. As the inhabitants were generally very poor, the tribute was paid in "black mail," that is, grain, meat, or the lowest coinage (copper), as opposed to "white mail," which was silver. In time the word took on the meaning of any payment extorted by threat of exposure of an incriminating secret.
Explanation #2. The term Blackmail is a Scottish term and relates back to the black cattle that were common in the Scottish Highlands. These cattle were bartered and used as money, exactly how we got to todays definition of Blackmail I am not sure. One thing I am sure about is that the famous highland regiment 'The Black Watch' was originally set up as a police force to prevent the black cattle being rustled, hence the name - The Black Watch.
A bit more information on the topic. Mail is an old word meaning rent,so blackmail was originally rent paid by the use of black cattle instead of cash. Perhaps landlords became increasingly greedy and undervalued the cattle thereby pushing the blackmail up under threats of eviction if it was not paid. This could well lead to todays meaning of blackmail as a 'payment under duress or threat'. Sounds plausible.
Ernest Weekley says the rent ("mail") paid by Scottish farmers to freebooters was often paid with black cattle. The so-called rent was actually extortion, hence blackmail came to mean other forms of extortion. Weekley also says that the Black Watch were so-named because they were raised in the 18th century for service in the Highlands and were given a dark uniform to distinguish them from the "old" army.
Explanation #3. Dear Word Detective: Please tell me what the origin of the word "blackmail" is. I have been told it has to do with freelance knights whose chain mail has turned black. -- Norman Levenstein, Franklin Square, NY.
Answer: I've never heard that theory, but it does make a certain amount of sense. So these unemployed knights, desperate for moolah, became so unscrupulous that they started extorting money from people? And then their armor turned black, like a full-body mood ring? I like it. Among other things, it explains why so many lawyers wear dark gray suits.
Just kidding, of course. But the real story of blackmail is pretty interesting in its own right. In the first place, English now has two different "mails," but it used to have three. The "letter" kind of "mail" is rooted in the old German word "malha," meaning "pouch," which at first meant any kind of pouch or bag, but which in the 17th century was narrowed to mean "mail pouch." The "metal mesh armor" kind of "mail," on the other hand, comes from the Latin "macula," meaning "spot," referring to the holes in the mesh of chain mail armor.
"Blackmail," meaning the extortion of money by the use of threats, especially threats to reveal secret or embarrassing information, comes from a third, now obsolete, sense of "mail" meaning "payment" or "tax." This "mail" came originally from the Old Norse word "mal," meaning "agreement," and exists as a word today only in Scots and some dialects in northern England.
Not surprisingly, the first blackmailers were corrupt politicians, 17th century Scottish chieftains who demanded protection money from local farmers, who refused only at the risk of having their crops destroyed. The "mail," or payment, was said to be "black" probably because the color black had long been associated with darkness and evil, but it might also have been because payment was usually made in livestock, rather than in silver (which was known as "white money").
The "give me two cows or I'll burn down your farm" kind of blackmail first appeared in English around 1552, but by the early 1800's we were using "blackmail" to mean just about any sort of extortion, especially using threats to reveal secrets.
Explanation #4. There are several here.
Explanation #5. Explanation at the Curious Word Origins page. The whole page is very interesting. I didn't know the explanation of the word 'assassin' was from the Arabic word hashshashin meaning 'hashish-eater', applied in the time of the Crusades to a set of fanatical Muslims dispatched by their leader to murder the Christians; they first intoxicated themselves by eating hashish. The Assassins were founded in Persia (modern day Iran) in the 11th century and extended their influence through what is now Iraq and Syria before their destruction by the Mongols in the 13th century.
Also check out the origin of the word 'avocado'. Good grief :D I find the whole page fascinating simply because Chinese people are always asking me the origin of words and because English devours so many words from so many different places, I frequently don't know :P