Things you should know

[TenantNet]

from Wordsmith.org

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

rachmanism

PRONUNCIATION:
(RAK-muh-niz-uhm)

MEANING:

noun: The exploitation and intimidation of tenants by landlords.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Peter Rachman (1919-1962), a landlord in London who became notorious for unethical practices including driving out tenants to maximize revenue from his rental properties. Another fellow who got his name in the dictionary for harassing tenants is Charles Boycott (1832-1897), a British land agent in Ireland, whose mistreatment of tenants resulted in his getting ostracized, i.e. he was boycotted.

USAGE:

"It is a story of pure Rachmanism. She had been threatened, had her rent cheque refused, her electricity cut off, and seen her absent neighbours' flats cleared of all their possessions, while rubbish was dumped outside her door."
-- Peter Beaumont; Drowned City Cuts Its Poor Adrift; The Observer (London, UK); Dec 11, 2005.

NOTES:

The term Rachmanism is a Britishism, though unscrupulous landlords are found everywhere. The above usage example is from the UK, but even if not mentioned, it'd be easy to tell: in just one sentence it manages to include four examples that illustrate the spelling and vocabulary differences between British English and American English: cheque/check, neighbour/neighbor, flat/apartment, and rubbish/trash.