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Luddite

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Lud⋅dite

  [luhd-ahyt]
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–noun
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.
Origin:
1805–15; after Ned Ludd, 18th-century Leicestershire worker who originated the idea; see -ite 1

Related forms:
Luddism, Lud⋅dit⋅ism, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Lud·dite   (lŭd'īt)   
n.  

  1. Any of a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and destroyed laborsaving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would diminish employment.

  2. One who opposes technical or technological change.


[After Ned Ludd, an English laborer who was supposed to have destroyed weaving machinery around 1779.]
Lud'dism n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

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 the story was first told in 1847). Applied to modern rejecters of automation and technology from at least 1961.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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