tithe

See also: t-ithe

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /taɪð/
  • Rhymes: -aɪð

Etymology 1

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, teogoðian), from a proposed Proto-Germanic *tehunþô, *tehundô (“a tenth”), with its nasal consonant being lost according to the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Teeged (“tithe”), German Zehnt (“tithe”), Danish tiende (“tithe”), Icelandic tíund (“tithe”).

Noun

tithe (plural tithes)

  1. (archaic) A tenth.
  2. The tenth part of the increase arising from the profits of land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support, as in England, or devoted to religious or charitable uses. Almost all the tithes of England and Wales are commuted by law into rent charges. Concept originates in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).
  3. A contribution to one's religious community or congregation of worship.
  4. A small part or proportion.
    • Francis Bacon.
      Offensive wars for religion are seldom to be approved, unless they have some mixture of civil tithes.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also

Adjective

tithe (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Tenth.
    • Shakespeare
      Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand.

Verb

tithe (third-person singular simple present tithes, present participle tithing, simple past and past participle tithed)

  1. To give one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly:
    1. (transitive) To pay something as a tithe.
      • 1967 August 6, Observer, 4:
        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.’
    2. (transitive) To pay a tithe upon something.
      • 1562, F.J. Furnivall, ed., Child-marriages... in the Diocese of Chester A.D. 1561-6, p. 138:
        The maner of tiething pigge and gose is, yf one have vijth, to pay one.
      • 1901, H.G. Dakyns translating Xenophon's Anabasis, Book V, Chapter iii, §9:
        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.
    3. (intransitive) To pay a tithe; to pay a 10% tax
      • 1942 September, Esquire, p. 174:
        They went to the Six Hickories church—tithed—and behaved themselves.
    4. (intransitive, figuratively) To pay or offer as a levy in the manner of a tithe or religious tax.
      • 1630, Anonymous translation of Giovanni Botero, anonymously translated as Relations of the Most Famous Kingdomes and Common-wealths, p. 510:
        These slaves are either the sonnes of Christians, tithed in their childhoods, Captives taken in the warres, or Renegadoes.
      • 1976 June 20, Billings Gazzette, C1:
        Former Southern officers prospered and tithed up to 50 percent for Civil War II, which never came.
  2. To take one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly:
    1. (transitive) To impose a tithe upon someone or something.
      • 1843, Frederick Marryat, Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet, in California, Sonora, & Western Texas, Vol. III, Ch. xi, p. 212:
        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.
    2. (transitive) 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).
      • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, vi, 256
        The multitude are tith'd, and every tenth only spar'd.
    3. (transitive) To enforce or collect a tithe upon someone or something.
      • 1591, The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn King of England, i, G:
        The Monkes the Priors and holy cloystred Nunnes,
        Are all in health,...
        Till I had tythde and tolde their holy hoords.
      • a. 1642,, Henry Best, published in 1984 as The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, p. 26:
        When the parson or Procter commeth to tythe his wooll.
    4. (transitive, obsolete) To decimate: to kill every tenth person, usually as a military punishment.
      • 1609, A. Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland as The Romane Historie, D, iii:
        The Thebane Legion... was first tithed, that is, every tenth man thereof was executed.
      • 1610, William Camden, translated by Philemon Holland as A Chorographicall Description of... England, Scotland, and Ireland, i, 705:
        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.
    5. (intransitive) To enforce or collect a tithe.
      • 1822, Thomas Love Peacock, Maid Marian, Ch. vi, p. 210:
        Those who tithe and toll upon them for their spiritual and temporal benefit.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To compose the tenth part of something.
    • 1586, William Warner, Albions England: A Continued Historie, i, v, 15:
      Her sorrowes did not tith her ioy.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English tíð (as an adjective, via tigþa[1] and, as a verb, via tigþian),[2] from unattested *tigð, from proposed Proto-Germanic *tigiþā but unknown outside of English.[3]

Noun

tithe (plural tithes)

  1. (obsolete) A boon (a grant or concession).

Adjective

tithe (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Receiving a concession or grant; successful in prayer or request.

Verb

tithe (third-person singular simple present tithes, present participle tithing, simple past and past participle tithed)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To grant, concede.
Derived terms

References

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "† tithe, adj.2" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1912.
  2. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "† tithe, v.1" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1912.
  3. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "† tithe, n.2" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1912.

Anagrams

Irish

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

tithe m pl

  1. plural of teach (“house”)
  2. housing
    Synonym: tithíocht

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
tithe thithe dtithe
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

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