tithe
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /taɪð/
rhymes: -aɪð
Forms: form: tithes
form: tithing
form: tithed
form: tithed
Etymology: From Middle English tithe, tythe, tethe, from Old English tēoþa, tēoða, teogoþa (in verb senses via Middle English tithen, tythen, tethen, from Old English tēoþian, teogoþian), from a proposed Proto-Germanic *tehunþô, *tehundô (“a tenth”), with its nasal consonant being lost according to the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law. Cognate with West Frisian tsiende (“tithe”), Saterland Frisian Teeged (“tithe”), Dutch tiende, German Low German Teihnte, German Zehnt (“tithe”), Danish tiende (“tithe”), Icelandic tíund (“tithe”), Dutch tiende (“tithe”).
Senses: examples: text: He teoðode gynd eall his cyne rice ðone teoðan del ealra his landa.
ref: 854, "Grant by Adulf" in Cartularium Saxonicum, Book ii, 79
text: A reply sent to a young member by the sect's letter-answering department was more precise: ‘A person working for wages is to tithe one-tenth of the total amount of his wages before income tax, national health, or other deductions are removed.’
ref: 1967 August 6, Observer, section 4:
glosses: To give one-tenth or a tithe of something
To pay something as a tithe.
examples: text: ...ge tiogoðiað eowre mintan & eowerne dile & eowerne kymen.
ref: c. 897, King Alfred translating St Gregory, Pastoral Care, Chapter lvii
text: The maner of tiething pigge and gose is, yf one have vijᵗʰ, to pay one.
ref: 1562, F.J. Furnivall, editor, Child-marriages... in the Diocese of Chester A.D. 1561-6, page 138:
text: Here with the sacred money [Xenophon] built an altar and a temple, and ever after, year by year, tithed the fruits of the land in their season and did sacrifice to the goddess.
ref: 1901, Xenophon, translated by H.G. Dakyns, Anabasis, Book V, Chapter iii, §9:
glosses: To give one-tenth or a tithe of something
To pay a tithe upon something.
examples: text: Þe prest þe meneȝeð rihtliche teðien.
ref: a. 1200, Trinity College Homilies, 215
text: They went to the Six Hickories church—tithed—and behaved themselves.
ref: 1942 September, Esquire, page 174:
glosses: To give one-tenth or a tithe of something
To pay a tithe; to pay a 10% tax
synonyms: decimate
examples: text: These slaves are either the sonnes of Christians, tithed in their childhoods, Captives taken in the warres, or Renegadoes.
ref: 1630, Anonymous translation of Giovanni Botero, anonymously translated as Relations of the Most Famous Kingdomes and Common-wealths, p. 510
text: Former Southern officers prospered and tithed up to 50 percent for Civil War II, which never came.
ref: 1976 June 20, Billings Gazette, C1:
glosses: To give one-tenth or a tithe of something
To pay or offer as a levy in the manner of a tithe or religious tax.
examples: text: gif we teoðiað þas gearlican dagas, þonne beoð þær six and ðritig teoðing-dagas.
ref: c. 1000, Ælfric, Homilies, Vol. I, 178:
glosses: To take one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly
examples: text: Leeuy, that took tithis, is tithid.
ref: 1382, Wycliffite Bible, Hebrews 7:9
text: The cost... has been defrayed by tithing the whole Mormon Church. Those who reside at Nauvoo... have been obliged to work every tenth day in quarrying stone.
ref: 1843, Frederick Marryat, chapter XI, in Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet, in California, Sonora, & Western Texas, volume III, page 212:
glosses: To take one-tenth or a tithe of something
To impose a tithe upon someone or something.
examples: text: Þe folk of Crist was tiþed, þat is to seie, nyne slayn and þe tenþe i-kepte.
ref: 1387, Ranulf Higden, translated by John de Trevisa, Polychronicon, VII, 89:
text: The multitude are tith'd, and every tenth only spar'd.
ref: 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, vi, 256:
glosses: To take one-tenth or a tithe of something
To spare only every tenth person, killing the rest (usually in relation to the sacking of the episcopal seat at Canterbury by the pagan Danes in 1011).
examples: text: The Monkes the Priors and holy cloystred Nunnes,
Are all in health,...
ref: 1591, The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn King of England, i, G
roman: Till I had tythde and tolde their holy hoords.
text: When the parson or Procter commeth to tythe his wooll.
ref: a. 1642, Henry Best, The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, published 1984, page 26:
glosses: To take one-tenth or a tithe of something
To enforce or collect a tithe upon someone or something.
synonyms: decimate
tithe out
examples: text: By decimation, and a tithed death, / ... take thou the destin'd tenth
ref: 1606, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens:
text: The Thebane Legion... was first tithed, that is, every tenth man thereof was executed.
ref: 1609, A. Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland, The Romane Historie, D, iii:
text: Keeping aliue... two principall persons, that they might be tithed with the soldiors... Every tenth man of the Normans they chose out by lot, to be executed.
ref: 1610, William Camden, translated by Philemon Holland, A Chorographicall Description of... England, Scotland, and Ireland, i, 705:
glosses: To take one-tenth or a tithe of something
To decimate: to kill every tenth person, usually as a military punishment.
synonyms: decimate
examples: text: Those who tithe and toll upon them for their spiritual and temporal benefit.
ref: 1822, Thomas Love Peacock, chapter VI, in Maid Marian, page 210:
glosses: To take one-tenth or a tithe of something
To enforce or collect a tithe.
examples: text: Her sorrowes did not tith her ioy.
ref: 1586, William Warner, Albions England: A Continued Historie, i, v, 15:
glosses: To compose the tenth part of something.
Derived terms: tithed
tithe out
tithing