Luddite
pronunciation
How to pronounce Luddite in British English:
UK [ˈlʌdaɪt]
How to pronounce Luddite in American English:
US [ˈlʌdaɪt]
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- Noun:
- any opponent of technological progress
- one of the 19th century English workmen who destroyed labor-saving machinery that they thought would cause unemployment
Word Origin
- Luddite
- Luddite: [19] The original Luddites, in the 1810s, were members of organized bands of working men who were opposed to the new factory methods of production (foreseeing – quite correctly – that the traditional ways which gave them employment would be destroyed by the new ones) and went around the country, mainly in the Midlands and Northern England, breaking up manufacturing machinery. They were named after Ned Ludd, a possibly apocryphal Leicestershire farm worker who around 1779 supposedly rushed into a stocking-maker’s house in an insane rage and smashed up two stocking frames.Thereafter, the story continues, whenever a stocking frame suffered damage the saying would be ‘Ludd must have been here!’. The ringleaders of the disturbances in the 1810s were commonly nicknamed ‘Captain Ludd’ or ‘King Ludd’. The modern application of the word to an opponent of technological or industrial change appears to date from the 1960s.
- Luddite (n.)
- also luddite, 1811, from name taken by an organized band of weavers who destroyed machinery in Midlands and northern England 1811-16 for fear it would deprive them of work. Supposedly from Ned Ludd, a Leicestershire worker who in 1779 had done the same before through insanity (but that story first was told in 1847). Applied to modern rejecters of automation and technology from at least 1961. As an adjective from 1812.
Example
- 1. I don 't mean to be a spoilsport , and I don 't think I 'm a luddite .
- 2. For the first time ever , the luddite fear that machines will replace people seems to be coming true .
- 3. Yielding to my usual luddite instincts , I suggested that such means might conflict with the desired end .
- 4. You 'll never get a luddite like geoff to use the new computer system .
- 5. But if the luddite fallacy ( as it has become known in development economics ) were true , we would all be out of work by now-as a result of the compounding effects of productivity .