A boycott is an act of coercion or protest, by abstaining and refusing to deal with a person or a group.This act has been called so, in honor of Captain Charles Cuningham Boycott, the first recipient of the treatment. Charles Boycott (1832-1897) was a grudging steward for the Earl of Erne in County Mayo- Ireland.He used to demand exorbitant rents from his tenants and consequently was the cause of numerous evictions. Thus, the Irish Land League had enough of it and in 1880, the local people were strictly forbidden to work his lands or to deal with him. In the 20th Century the boycott was even regarded as formal by the Société des Nations, during the conflict between Italy and Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936 when the former UN organization determined to boycott Italian trade. The word has spread to other languages like the German boykottieren, the Portuguese and Spanish boicotar and the Italian boicottare . It also spread to the Balkans and far beyond, to Russia as boykot.

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