Blackmailer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who unlawfully coerces someone by threatening to unveil damaging information unless paid or given favors
2. A person who engages in extortion through intimidation by promising to reveal secrets if their demands are not satisfied
3. An individual who employs threats of disclosing confidential information to leverage undue advantage or financial gain over another person

Etymology: "Blackmail" was originally a Scottish term for a rent paid to border chieftains in return for protection from raids, and only later came to mean extortion by threat of exposure. The "mail" in it is not the word for letters or armour but an old Scots and Northern English word for rent or tribute, a sense that goes back to Old Norse "mál," meaning agreement or payment. The "black" likely refers to the lawless or illicit character of such dealings, though the exact nuance is uncertain. The modern sense of coercion through threatened disclosure developed in the 1820s and 1830s in England, as the old meaning of protection money faded. The noun "blackmailer" is simply "blackmail" with the English agent suffix "-er," which denotes a person who performs the action, so a blackmailer is one who extorts money by threatening to reveal damaging secrets.

Synonyms: extortionist, coercer, threatener

Antonyms: victim