Blackmail

a term applied in the days of English and Scotch border warfare to payment made in cattle, corn, or the like, to some chief of robbers for protection from further loss. Scott's Waverley gives a glimpse of the efficient protection afforded by a Fergus McIvor, and the prompt loss of flocks following neglect and refusal to pay blackmail. Farmers in the border country had no choice save that between submission and ruin. In modern usage the term is applied usually to a sum of money extracted from a person through threats of exposure of wrongdoing. "Give me of your flocks or you shall lose" was the message of the Scottish border chieftain. "Give of your money or I'll tell" is the formula of the modern blackmailer. The laws of most states make the levying of blackmail a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term, usually not to exceed five years.