tax

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tæks/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English taxen, borrowed from Old French taxer (“to impose a tax”) and directly borrowed from Latin taxāre (“to evaluate, estimate, assess, handle; to censure”),^[2][3] in Medieval Latin “to tax”,^[4][5] probably a frequentative of tangere (“to touch”),^[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *tag- (“to touch, handle”).^[2][6] The SOED and the COED suggest instead Greek τάσσω (tássō, “to order, fix”).^[7][8] The noun is borrowed from Anglo-Norman tax, Old French taxe and taxa.^[2] The same Latin verb gave task.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To assess, put a tax on: about 1300.^[3][2] The noun, a compulsory contribution to the government, is from before 1327^[10] or the early 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

To determine the amount of a fine or penalty is from the 13th century,^[11] and the legal sense of assessing costs survives.^[7] The sense “to burden, put a strain on” is from the early 14th century, figuratively by the 1670s,^[2] and the noun, a burdensome demand, from before 1628.^[10] “To censure, take to task” is from the 1560s.^[2][11] Tyndale used tax in Luke 2 for the Roman census.^[2] Tax-gatherer is from the 1550s, tax-dodger by 1876, tax shelter from 1961, tax break by 1968 and tax bracket by 1975.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – verb, to tax.^[3][2]
• before 1327 – noun, a tax.^[10]
• early 14th century – verb, to burden.^[2]
• 1560s – verb, to censure.^[2]
• before 1628 – noun, a burden.^[10]
• 1876 – tax-dodger.^[2]
• 1961 – tax shelter.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A compulsory contribution to support a government, levied on income, property, goods or transactions.
2. A fee levied on members of an organization.
3. A burdensome demand; a strain.

Verb

1. To place a tax on; to require a tax from.
2. (law) To assess court costs.
3. To make heavy demands on; to strain.
4. To accuse or censure: taxed him with neglect.

Word family

• taxer
• taxable
• taxless
• antitax
• nontax

Related words

• task
• taxation
• tangent
• tact
• taste
• tangible

Usage notes

A rare tax for the yew tree, from Latin taxus, is recorded from 1541.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press