In Ireland, around 1880, the harvest wasn’t doing so well.
To appease his tenant farmers, Lord Erne offered a 10% rent reduction. They countered with a request for 25%. He rejected their proposal and told his land agent, Captain Charles Boycott, to start evicting them.
That should have ended the story. Instead, it started one.
Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell, a local leader at the time, made a simple proposal to the farmers: don’t attack Boycott. Don’t threaten him. Simply pretend he doesn’t exist.
Don’t work for him.
Don’t sell to him.
Don’t buy from him.
Don’t even acknowledge him.
The village happily obliged.
His laborers quit.
His servants disappeared.
Shopkeepers turned him away.
Even the postman refused to deliver his mail.
Within weeks, one man became socially radioactive.
The story spread around the world. The Irish Land Reform movement found new momentum. And Captain Charles Boycott achieved something few people ever do: his name became a verb.
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