Perplexed comments on Unpacking the Concept of "Blackmail" - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Vladimir_Nesov 10 December 2010 12:53AM

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Tags: decision_theory blackmail game_theory

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Comment author: Perplexed 10 December 2010 01:43:51AM 6 points [-]

I had the same reaction, thinking blackmail is a special form of extortion in which the threat is a threat of exposure. But when I sought support from the dictionary, I was disappointed

Comment author: shokwave 10 December 2010 05:42:24PM *  2 points [-]

Dictionaries are histories of usage; not arbiters of meaning. If they were, language would not change in meaning (only add new words) from the moment the first dictionaries were made.

See here

Comment author: wedrifid 10 December 2010 04:55:42AM 2 points [-]

That is surprising. It seems that using 'blackmail' to refer to extortion isn't even a corruption of the original use.

Comment author: jfm 10 December 2010 06:38:36PM 1 point [-]

Indeed, we have this account of the etymology from George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets:

Deprived of the protection of law, neglected by his superiors, and too weak to resist his despoilers, the ordinary man's only course was the payment of blackmail. This practice is probably as old as time, but the expression itself was coined on the Borders, and meant something different from blackmail today. Its literal meaning is "black rent" --- in other words, illegal rent -- and its exact modern equivalence is the protection racket.

Blackmail was paid by the tenant or farmer to a "superior" who might be a powerful reiver, or even an outlaw, and in return the reiver not only left him alone, but was also obliged to protect him from other raiders and to recover his goods if they were carried off.

Note that he does consider the modern meaning to be more specialized.

Comment author: Alicorn 10 December 2010 01:49:44AM 2 points [-]

They are certainly used synonymously often enough to get into the dictionary that way. I didn't say it was wrong, I said I wish it weren't used that way.

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