Ludd

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referring to a member of a 19th-century movement opposing industrialization and technology
2. A historical reference to individuals who protested against the negative impacts of machine production on employment
3. An identifier for those who resist technological advancements in favor of traditional craftsmanship

Etymology: Ned Ludd was, according to a legend that circulated in the English Midlands, a Leicestershire apprentice who smashed two stocking frames in a rage around 1779. The story is almost certainly fictional, and no such person is documented. Even so, the name became a rallying banner: in 1811 and 1812, workers who broke textile machinery in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire called themselves Luddites, and claimed to follow "General Ludd" or "King Ludd." Their protest was not against technology as such but against mechanisation that cut wages and destroyed skilled trades, and a few years later the government made machine-breaking a capital offence. The word itself is an English coinage from a specific historical episode, so it has no older ancestry to trace. Its sense has drifted from the people who smashed frames to anyone who resists new technology in general, a meaning that the original workers would probably not have recognised.

Synonyms: Luddite

Antonyms: technophile, innovator