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Long before your Luddite friend was waxing poetic about how blissful it is to not have a smartphone, Luddites were protesting the textile machinery that was slowly replacing them. It was toward the end of 1811, in the vicinity of Nottingham, England, when handicraftsmen formed organized bands and began to riot for the destruction of the new machinery. Their name is of uncertain origin, but it may be connected to a (probably mythical) person named Ned Ludd. According to an unsubstantiated account in George Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth (1847), Ned Ludd was a Leicestershire villager of the late 1700s who, in a fit of rage, rushed into a stocking weaver's house and destroyed his equipment; subsequently, his name was proverbially connected with machinery destruction. With the onset of the information age, Luddite gained a broader sense describing anyone who shuns new technology.
Examples of Luddite in a Sentence
Branko Milanovic, Foreign Affairs, 12 Aug. 2011
Or is the therapist’s smug Luddite attitude somehow a threat?
—The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024
The tactile flourish of a touchscreen gave Luddites the tools to chop samples and program drum beats with an efficiency that would’ve made J Dilla blush, but the novelty of such pursuits became a substantial roadblock to ever being taken seriously by those with pro studio bona fides.
—Pete Cottell, WIRED, 2 May 2024
When an existential crisis hits Adam, a musical Luddite contemplating suicide, his betrothed returns to assist in regulating his ennui.
—Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 14 Feb. 2024
Over 200 years after the Luddite uprisings, garment factory workers in fast fashion are still burning to death because of unsafe working conditions.
—Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 13 Jan. 2024
Los Angeles Times technology columnist Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine is a spirited and thoughtful recounting of the Luddite uprising in response to the Industrial Revolution, one that draws parallel after parallel to the present.
—Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 22 Dec. 2023
The genie is out of the bottle Despite the possible changes to the labor market, Summers is hardly a Luddite or tech doomer.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 22 Nov. 2023
The term Luddite is often used incorrectly to describe an exhausted and embittered populace that wants technology to go away.
—WIRED, 28 Sep. 2023
Dictionary Entries Near Luddite
Cite this Entry
“Luddite.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Luddite. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.
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