Boycott

Origin

The word "boycott" springs directly from the dramatic events of County Mayo, Ireland, in 1880. Captain Charles Boycott, an English land agent for an absentee landlord, became infamous for his harsh treatment of tenants during a time of agricultural distress. When tenants, organized by the Irish Land League, demanded rent reductions, Boycott flatly refused and tried to evict them. In response, local people began a relentless campaign of social and economic ostracism: they refused to work his fields, deliver his mail, or sell him goods. The local community utterly isolated him, and this organized withdrawal of cooperation proved so effective that the English press adopted his name to describe this powerful new form of protest, immortalizing his plight in the English lexicon.