Captain Charles Boycott

was a former English army officer who served as the agent for an absentee landlord in Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. He was very harsh, refusing to lower rents in hard times and dispossessing tenant farmers who couldn't pay. In 1880 the tenants, encouraged by the Irish Land League, retaliated: they organized a campaign to isolate Captain Boycott, encouraging the local people to refuse to have any dealings with him or his family. Charles Parnell of the Irish Land League said that those who refused to lower rents or who took the farms of people who had been evicted should be treated like "the lepers of old." Boycott and his family found themselves without servants or farmhands and without mail delivery or service in stores. Their own crops failed, and they eventually fled back to England.

Note that Captain Boycott was the boycottee, not the boycotter.

The word quickly found its way into the press: the Times of London reported on November 20, 1880: "The people of New Pallas have resolved to 'boycott' them and refused to supply them with food or drink." The Daily News wrote on December 13, 1880: "Already the stoutest-hearted are yielding on every side to the dread of being 'Boycotted'." By January of the following year, the word was being used figuratively: "Dame Nature arose....She 'Boycotted' London from Kew to Mile End" (The Spectator, January 22, 1881).

Within weeks of the event, Le Figaro in Paris said: "The lively Irish have invented a new word; they are saying now to 'boycott' someone, meaning to ostracize him." The word found its way into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Croatian, Polish, and Japanese!

Posted By: Tomblander on September 15th 2006 at 10:36:02

Message Thread

My England v Macedonia experience (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 09:58:35
- And in other news... (Other Football) - Jim Nasium, Sep 15, 10:14:14
  - Tannoy (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 10:15:16
    - Dam (n/m) (Other Football) - Jim Nasium, Sep 15, 10:16:44
  - Then it would be St. Johns' and not St. John's (n/m) (Other Football) - Steve in Holland, Sep 15, 10:14:57
    - beauty (n/m) (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 10:15:46
      - E were bluddy asking for ut (n/m) (Other Football) - Steve in Holland, Sep 15, 10:16:58
        
        Now look here young man... (Other Football) - Jim Nasium, Sep 15, 10:21:09
        
        St Johns' Ambulances (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 10:22:49
        
        Ah but they're the ambulances of St John. (n/m) (Other Football) - Jim Nasium, Sep 15, 10:24:46
        
        oh no they are bloody not (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 10:26:37
        
        Still have his name on the side... (Other Football) - Jim Nasium, Sep 15, 10:29:33
        
        Like the Leonard Cheshire Homes... (Other Football) - Arganth, Sep 15, 10:33:12
        
        Captain Charles Boycott (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 10:36:02
        
        Do they need a dump too...in slow motion? (n/m) (Other Football) - Jim Nasium, Sep 15, 10:35:03
- to be fair, it's a football match you were at... (Other Football) - beckford, Sep 15, 10:10:07
  - Does that make their behaviour acceptable ? (Other Football) - Arganth, Sep 15, 10:15:05
  - I do realise that (Other Football) - Tomblander, Sep 15, 10:13:51

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