Blackmail

Did you ever know the origins of the word "Blackmail"? I always thought it had something to do with "mail" i.e. sending threatening letters or messages. But it comes from a completely different root.

In the old times some poor villages used to steal cattles from other villages, then they charged ransom to return the stolen cattle. The term in Scots was Blackmail &mdash mail being the word for 'rent' or 'tribute' and black the typical colour of cattles (don't ask me why cattles in Britain were mostly black!).

Blackmail determined the rhythm of life in poor parts of both England and North of Scotland. Some observers estimated that at any given moment a chief of such village had half of his warriors out stealing the neighbour's cattle, and the other half out recovering the cattle his other neighbour had stolen from him.

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