Threatening to reveal embarrassing secrets or damaging information about someone unless they pay money or do what you want.
From 'black' (dark, illegal) + 'mail' (originally meaning tribute or tax in Scottish). The term emerged in Scotland in the 1500s-1600s for extortion payments, combining the idea of dark deeds with payment demands.
In medieval Scotland, 'mail' was just a regular word for a payment or tax, but adding 'black' to it (meaning illegal or immoral) turned it into one of the oldest extortion terms—proving that adding 'black' to anything makes it sound sinister!
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