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▪ I. poundage1|ˈpaʊndɪdʒ|
Also 5 pundage, 5–7 pondage, 7 powndage.
[f. pound n.1 + -age; hence med. (Anglo-) L. pondāgium.]
1. An impost, duty, or tax of so much per pound sterling on merchandise; spec. a subsidy, usually of 12 pence in the pound, formerly granted by Parliament to the Crown, on all imports and exports except bullion and commodities paying tonnage. Now Hist.
1399Langl. Rich. Redeles iv. 14 His puruyours toke, Withoute preiere at a parlement a poundage biside, And a fifteneth and a dyme eke. 1422Rolls of Parlt. IV. 173/2 A subsidie of Tonage and Poundage..that is to sey of every Tunne iiis; and xiid of every Pounde. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. vi. (1885) 122 The kynge hath therfore þe subsidie of pondage and tonnage. 1509–10Act 1 Hen. VIII, c. 20 §1 Another Subsidie called Poundage, that ys to sey: of all maner merchaundises..caryed out of this..Realme or brought into the same by wey of merchaundise of the value of every xxs., xijd. 1628Chas. I. Speech Wks. 1662 I. 370 As for Tonnage and Poundage it is a thing I cannot want and was never intended by you to ask. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xxiv. 150 He knowes well that cunning is no burthen to carry, as paying neither portage by land, nor poundage by sea. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. viii. 315 Those [subsidies] of tonnage and poundage, in particular, were at first granted, as the old statutes (and particularly 1 Eliz. c. 19.) express it, for the defence of the realm, and the keeping and safeguard of the seas.
2. a. A payment of so much per pound sterling upon the amount of any transaction in which money passes; a commission, or fee, of so much a pound.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 25 There being two-hundred in it worth three hundred pounds a piece, with poundage and shillings to the lurched. 1693Southerne Maid's Last Pr. iii. iii, I shall be paid in crack't money, and pay poundage into the bargain. 1749Chesterfield Lett. (1775) II. 129 Pay that money..yourself, and not through the hands of a servant, who always..stipulates poundage. 1809Malkin Gil Blas xi. vii. (Rtldg.) 408 What cursed fools our dramatists must be, to care for anything but their poundage when their plays happen to be received! 1835Crompton, Meeson & Roscoe's Reports II. 334 The sheriff is entitled to poundage on the whole amount of the goods levied. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 309 The paymaster of the forces had a poundage, amounting to about five thousand a year, on all the money which passed through his hands. 1892E. K. Blyth in Law Times XCIII. 488/2 Scandalously high court fees charged by way of poundage.
b. A percentage of the total earnings of any concern, paid as wages to those engaged in it, sometimes in addition to a fixed wage.
1892Labour Commission Gloss., Poundage, a system in vogue in the slate industry to adjust the wages of the workmen. Every month when the claims of the slate quarrymen are made out an addition of so much in the pound is made upon the slate bill, that is, the payment due according to the standard rates. Poundage, the system under which the wages of tacklers or overlookers in cotton mills are based upon the output of the looms, being so much in the pound on the total earnings of the weavers under their charge. 1901Westm. Gaz. 6 Sept. 8/1 The principle of poundage was agreed to by the men, who, however, prefer a higher fixed wage and less poundage.
3. A payment or charge of so much per pound weight; payment by weight.
a1500in Arnolde Chron. (1811) 100 To poundage perteynen that euery marchaundise that shalbe sold be weight brought in to London [etc.]. 1891J. Simson Hist. Thanet 148 Under the act of 1812 the duties in those days called ‘lastage’ or ‘poundage’ were adjusted. 1904Westm. Gaz. 16 Dec. 5/2 The Commonwealth Postal Department has now finally decided not to seek to renew the contract, but to rely on getting letters forwarded on a poundage basis, as provided by the Postal Union rules.
4. Salt-making. The number of pounds of salt contained in one gallon of brine, or (in some places) in one cubic foot of brine.
1907Let. to Editor fr. Cheshire, The weight of salt contained in one gallon of brine..is usually about 2 lb. 10 oz.; if it is as little as 2 lb. 8 oz., the brine is not worth working. The poundage is measured by a graduated hollow glass instrument, similar to that used in ascertaining the specific gravity of a fluid. (The gallon is not the imperial, but the old wine gallon. The standard poundage is thus more than 3 lb. to the imperial gallon.) The word is in constant use at the Cheshire and Staffordshire Salt Works, but is never used at Droitwich.
5. Betting. Extravagant odds. Cf. pound v.4, quot. 1812.
1816Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 234 The poundage was here offered, but no takers. 1894Sir J. D. Astley 50 Years Life II. 83 At Newmarket it would have been poundage on my horse.
6. a. Weight stated in pounds. nonce-use.
1903Blackw. Mag. Jan. 60/1 Our heaviest [fish] at that date was 20 lb., and there seemed to be a want of proportion in the business, an almost indelicate exuberance of poundage.
b. A person's weight, esp. that which is regarded as excess.
1930Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves! iv. 93 Women who have anything to do with opera..always appear to run to surplus poundage. 1971Time 5 Apr. 44/3 With his hair transplant and added poundage.
Hence ˈpoundage v. trans., to impose poundage upon: whence ˈpoundaging vbl. n. In quot. fig.
1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 64 Nothing writt'n but what passes through the custom-house of certain Publicans that have the tunaging and the poundaging of all free spok'n truth.
▪ II. poundage2|ˈpaʊndɪdʒ|
Also 6 Sc. poindage.
[f. pound v.2, n.2 + -age.]
†1. The action or right of pounding stray or trespassing cattle (obs.); the charge levied upon the owner of impounded cattle or of anything poinded.
1554Act 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary, c. 12 §2 No person..shall take for keping in [pr. im-] pownde impownding or pondage of any..Distres, above the somme of iiij d. 1576Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 524 To use the ordour of parcage or poindage establissit in the said indenture. 1660in 1st Cent. Hist. Springfield, Mass. (1898) I. 274 And for Swine or any Cattle that are lyable to Poundage who ever shall Pound them, they shall have foure pence a head, for y⊇ Poundage of them. 1845S. Judd Margaret ii. v. (1881) 264 Molly I've known ever since she was dropt; she has brought in the strays, and many is the poundage she has saved Uncle Ket.
2. The keeping of cattle in a pound or enclosure; an enclosure in which cattle are kept.
1867C. Tomlinson Cycl. Useful Arts I. 3/2 [The slaughterman] only paying for the poundage of his beasts according to the requirements of his business. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 644/1 The bye-laws usually provide..for the poundage to have floor-space sufficient for each animal. |