Etymologically
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tax

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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
  • 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