“The word ‘boycott’ originated in Ireland about twenty-five years ago, when the people of the Green Isle were up in protest against British misrule, and they adopted a plan against a certain agent for one of the land owners. This agent was known by the name of Captain Boycott…It was either an applied understanding or an expressed declaration that the people would have no dealings with him insofar as it was possible. And then came the word ‘boycott’, and it has come into our dictionaries and into our lexigraphs, as well as into our court decisions.”
Richard A. Ford
The Washington Law Reporter Vol. XXXVII
1909