black rent

English

Noun

black rent (uncountable)

  1. (dated) Blackmail (rent paid in corn, meat, or the lowest coin).
    • 1856, “Notes on Old Irish Maps”, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology‎[1], volume 4, page 121:
      [F]rom whose rich domains in Meath he received a “black rent” equivalent to £10,000 a year[.]
  2. (Scottish Borders, Ireland, historical) Protection money.
    • 1825, Edward O’Reilly, “An Essay on the Subject Proposed by the Royal Irish Academy”, in The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy‎[2], volume 14, page 160:
      [N]othing could have preserved them from total extirpation but the assistance afforded them by the other Irish princes and tribes, whose friendship and protection they purchased by paying them a tribute, or black rent, as it was called.
    • 1831, Edmond O’Foelin, “Eman Oge: A Translation from an Original Irish Story”, in The National Magazine‎[3], volume 2, number 3, page 289:
      [S]he pays me the black rent, and I let her alone[.]

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