Blackmail vs Blackball - What's the difference?
blackmail | blackball |
(archaic) A certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage.
Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.
:: to extort money by threats, as of injury to one's reputation
(English law) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, meat, or the lowest coin, as opposed to white rent, which paid in silver.
To extort money or favors from (a person) by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, such as injury to reputation, distress of mind, false accusation, etc.; as, to blackmail a merchant by threatening to expose an alleged fraud.
A rejection, a vote against admitting someone.
A black ball used to indicate such a negative vote.
the act of so rejecting someone.
A kind of large black sweet; a niggerball.
A substance for blacking shoes, boots, etc. or for taking impressions of engraved work.
To vote against, especially in an exclusive organization.
*1898 , Willa Cather, The Westbound Train
*:Why, if I had known you all my life I should have grown up in the condition of Adam before the fall, and they would have blackballed me at the clubs.
To ostracize.
In transitive terms the difference between blackmail and blackball
is that blackmail is to extort money or favors from (a person) by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, such as injury to reputation, distress of mind, false accusation, etc.; as, to blackmail a merchant by threatening to expose an alleged fraud while blackball is to ostracize.blackmail
English
(wikipedia blackmail)Noun
(-)- to levy blackmail