Luddite
[luhd-ahyt]
- a member of any of various bands of workers in England (1811–16) organized to destroy manufacturing machinery, under the belief that its use diminished employment.
- someone who is opposed or resistant to new technologies or technological change.
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Origin of Luddite
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for luddites
Contemporary Examples
Graedon comes down firmly on the side of the luddites, but her vision of the future is less alarmist than alarmingly within reach.
Paul Krugman has a column today on a topic you don't normally get much of from economists: sympathy for the Luddites.
Historical Examples
The attitude of the Luddites had become more openly threatening.
Through the FrayG. A. Henty
The Luddites, who commenced breaking up machinery in manufacturing towns in 1811, again committed great excesses.
Lord John RussellStuart J. Reid
In April, seven members of the so-called society of Luddites were hanged at Leicester for breaking labor-saving machinery.
A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by YearEdwin Emerson
In November many Luddites were convicted, and sixteen were executed by sentence of a special commission sitting at York.
The Political History of England - Vol XIGeorge Brodrick
Bill had dropped in, and they sat talking of the doings of the Luddites till it was later than usual.
Through the FrayG. A. Henty
Luddite
- any of the textile workers opposed to mechanization who rioted and organized machine-breaking between 1811 and 1816
- any opponent of industrial change or innovation
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- of or relating to the Luddites
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Word Origin
C19: alleged to be named after Ned Ludd, an 18th-century Leicestershire workman, who destroyed industrial machinery
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for luddites
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Luddites
[(lud-eyets)]
Opponents of the introduction of labor-saving machinery. The original Luddites, followers of a legendary Ned Ludd, were British laborers of the early nineteenth century who smashed textile-making machines that threatened their jobs.
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Note
Contemporary opponents of technological change are sometimes called “Luddites.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.