tributary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tributarie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin tribūtārius (“liable to tax or tribute; one who pays tribute”),^[5][6][7][2] from tribūtum (“tribute”),^[3][8][7] with the suffix that gives English -ary.^[8][9] The Latin noun is the neuter of the past participle of tribuō (“to pay, assign, grant”), from tribus (“tribe”).^[6] The OED compares French tributaire, recorded from the 12th century,^[5] and Johnson gave both the French and the Latin word as its source.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart's first record is the noun, a person who pays tribute, in 1375, and the adjective, paying tribute, before 1382 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[7] The OED's first record of the adjective is the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, about 1384, and of the noun a translation of Higden's Polychronicon from before 1475.^[5] Chaucer used the adjective three times.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was used figuratively from about 1412, in Hoccleve.^[5] From 1594 (in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus) it also meant paid or offered as tribute;^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1580s.^[6] In Cymbeline (1611) Shakespeare used it for "subsidiary, contributory", a sense that was also applied to a stream or river flowing into another.^[5][7][6] The noun for such a stream appears only in 1822, in American English, in Simmons's Notices of East Florida.^[5][7] From 1859 the noun was used of other things that feed into something larger.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective only as paying tribute in acknowledgement of submission.^[10] The Shorter Oxford now labels the sense "offered as a tribute" archaic.^[9]

Timeline

• 1375 – noun, a person who pays tribute.^[7] The OED's first record of the noun is from before 1475.^[5]
• c. 1384 – adjective, paying tribute, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5] Barnhart dates it before 1382.^[7]
• c. 1412 – adjective, in figurative use.^[5]
• 1594 – adjective, paid or offered as tribute.^[5]
• 1611 – adjective, subsidiary, contributory, also of a stream flowing into another.^[7][5]
• 1822 – noun, a stream that flows into a larger stream or a lake.^[5][7][6]
• 1859 – noun, something else that contributes to a larger whole.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stream, river or glacier that flows into a larger one or into a lake: The village stands where two small tributaries meet the main river.^[11][2][5]
2. A person, ruler or state that pays tribute to a stronger power.^[11][2][5]
3. Something that contributes to a larger whole.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. Of a stream or river, flowing into a larger one.^[11][5]
2. Paying tribute; subject or dependent.^[11][2][5]
3. Given or owed as tribute (archaic).^[11][9][5]
4. Contributory or auxiliary.^[5]

Word family

• tributarily
• nontributary
• untributary

Related words

• distributary
• tribute
• tribe

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins