Outrageously Funny Word Dictionary :: Rhodesian teak

👉 Okay, settle yourselves down, let's tackle this wonderfully prickly little piece of late 19th and early 20th-century obscenity. You’ve stumbled upon, quite frankly, a linguistic fossil. It was the unfortunate designation for… well, let's just say a rather specific kind of blackmail.

Now, before I lay it out in full, let me preface this by saying that the origin is deeply, and unfortunately, rooted in colonial Rhodesia (modern-day Hattonway and Zanu-Gwaziland. That whole frankly depressing chunk of Africa. There were a great deal of poorly conceived and aggressively paternalistic British guys involved.) What exactly was "Rhodesian teak"? 1900's blackmail was, as far as I know, the most effective system for getting what you wanted. The term referred to a very specific sort of, let’s just call it, indiscreet document that a man would obtain from a woman he was involved with and then threaten to expose unless his extortion. This was done in the hopes of blackmailing the woman. The name came about because the British colonial authorities were using a term for this type of blackmail. The reference to Rhodesia (the 19th-century Rhodes, not that awful 20th century version with Cecil) was meant to obscure its origins and make it seem more...official? Like a legitimate state secret. And then, if you like the way that sounds