Meaning
To withdraw from commercial or social relations with a person, company, or country as a punishment or protest, and to urge others to do the same; also the noun for such an organized refusal. Now fully neutral, it describes tactics from consumer strikes to diplomatic sanctions, without the forced isolation that marked its origin. Neutral register spanning consumer activism to diplomacy; the verb is the default form and carries no necessary implication of intimidation. Regional use: General English (eponym from an 1880 County Mayo, Ireland episode).
Origin
The word comes from Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832-1897), an English land agent for Lord Erne's estates at Lough Mask, County Mayo, Ireland. In September 1880, after tenants demanding deeper rent cuts were refused and eviction notices were issued, the Irish Land League organized a campaign of total ostracism: his laborers left, local shops refused to serve him, and even the postman stopped delivering. Local priest Father John O'Malley is credited by Land League chronicler Michael Davitt with suggesting 'boycott' as a handy word for the tactic. Journalist James Redpath spread it through the New-York Tribune, The Times of London used it on November 20, 1880, and within months it had entered other languages, including French boycotter and Japanese boikotto.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- boycotted
- boycotter
- boycotting
- boycotts
Usage Examples
- Consumers threatened to boycott the brand until its suppliers were independently audited.
- The athletes' boycott of the opening ceremony drew far more coverage than the ceremony itself.
- Students organized a boycott of the campus bookstore over textbook pricing.