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BLACKMAIL
Definition of BLACKMAIL
noun
The extortion of money or favors by threats of public accusation, critique, or exposure.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
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. More likely, from black + Middle English mal, male, maile (“a payment, rent, tribute”), from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement, lawsuit, terms, bargaining”), from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”); related to Old English mæðel (“meeting, council”), mæl (“speech”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌸𐌻 (maþl, “meeting place”), from Proto-Germanic *maþlą (“gathering, agreement”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to give advice, measure”). From the practice of freebooting clan chieftains who ran protection rackets against Scottish farmers. Black from the evil of the practice. Expanded c. 1826 to any type of extortion money. Compare silver mail (“rent paid in money”) (1590s); buttock mail (“fine imposed for fornication”) (1530s, Scottish).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
BLACKMAIL in OUTLIER
Players have found it on 1 board so far.
It first turned up on Day 110, 7 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 1 day.
First ever to find it
on Day 110, 7 September 2026 - before anyone else in Outlier's history. See the Pioneers
Built from these letters
BLACKMAIL starts with B and ends with L. Sorted, its letters read AABCIKLLM - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. L and A appear more than once.
Words that start BLACKM
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found BLACKMAIL?
OUTLIER is a daily word game. One grid, the same grid for everybody, and the words nobody else spots are the ones that pay. This word was on Day 110 - and most players walked straight past it.
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