Forms: 4–6 tayle, tayll, taill, 4–8 taille, taile, 5–7 taylle, (5 tayille, 6 tall), 4–tail. [a. Of. taille cut, cutting, division, partition or assessment of a subsidy or impost, tax (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), vbl. sb. f. taillier to cut, TAIL v.2 But, in sense 4, OF. taille was perh.:—L tālea, med.L. tālia stick, rod: cf. TALLY.
Tail in K. Alisaunder, 2217 (Weber) appears to be a scribal error; MS. Bodley, Laud Misc. 622, has ‘among the toyle Hardapilon.’]
I. † 1. Shape, fashion, bodily form or appearance. [F. taille; cf. CUT sb.2 16.] Obs. rare.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11855 (Cott.). Yee se he has na mans taill [v.rr. taille, tale, taile] Þar-for yee sai me your consaill.
c. 1325. Poems Times Edw. II., 282, in Pol. Songs (Camden), 336. A newe taille of squierie is nu in everi toun.
II. † 2. The individual assessment of a subsidy or tallage levied by the king or lord; a tax, impost, due, duty, or payment levied. Obs.
1340. Ayenb., 38. Kueade lordes … þet be-ulaȝeþ þe poure men: þet hi ssolden loki, be tayles, be tornees.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 320. Gif ony deis in this battaill, His air, but ward, releif, or taill, On the first day his land sall weild.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1905), 89. That quene … dede mani aduersiteez to the pepille, by tailez and subsidiez.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 93. Kirk men suld pay tailles, tributis and imposiciouns to seclere kingis.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., i. (1885), 109. [The king] mey sett vppon thaim tayles and other imposicions, such as he wol hym self, with owt thair assent.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1633), 59. The Yeoman or Husbond man is no more subject to taile or taxe in England.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, IV. 254. Not the drudging out a poore and worthlesse duty forc’t from us by the taxe, and taile of so many letters.
ǁ b. Now only as Fr., in form taille. A tax formerly levied upon the unprivileged classes in France.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lx. 210. He hath reysyd vp in all his londes new taylles & gables & impossessyons.
1554. Wotton, Lett., 29 July, in State Pap. Mary, Foreign, IV. 193 (P. R. O.). The priuiledges of nobilite, emonge the which one is that the gentlemen pay nothing to the ordinarye taylles, which alle Fraunce payeth continuallye to the king.
1682. Warburton, Hist. Guernsey (1822), 46. They should be exempted from all gendarmeries, tailles.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 30. The money is raised by tailles, and, in making the assessment, lands held by a noble tenure are so much eased, and others by a base one so burthened, that 120 arpents … held by the former, pay 90 liv. and 400 possessed by a plebeian right … is, instead of that, assessed at 1400 liv.
1863. Kirk, Chas. Bold, I. v. 216. The taille and the gabelle levied on the villain burghers.
1877. Morley, Crit. Misc., II. 200. The great fiscal grievance of old France was the taille, a tax raised … only on the property and income of the unprivileged classes.
III. 3. Law. The limitation or destination of a freehold estate or fee to a person and the heirs of his body, or some particular class of such heirs, on the failure of whom it is to revert to the donor or his heir or assign. [Cf. TAIL a., TAIL v.2 5; = TAILYE sb. 3.] Hence phrase in tail, as estate in tail, tenant in tail, heir in tail, i.e., within or under the limitation in question.
[1321–2. Rolls of Parlt., I. 394/2. C’est son droit par vertu de la taille avantdit [i.e., an entail to heirs of the body of the spouses].]
1373–5. in Calr. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. (1830), I. Pref. 59. An olde dede … comprisynge the wordes of a tayll made in Kynge Edwardes tyme the second.
1439. in E. E. Wills (1882), 125. And aftir him and his issue, to Iohn his brother, and his issue in the taile.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xi. (1885), 136. To some parte þeroff the eyres off thaim þat some tyme owed it be restored; some bi reason off tayles, some bi reason off oþer titles.
1479. in Bury Wills (Camden), 52. And after the decess of the seid Alice, I will that the seid maner shall remayne to the issues of my body lawfully begoten accordyng to the tayle therof made.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 11. If the gyfte were in the tayle and no remaynder in fe euer, nowe the reuercyon resteth styll in ye donor.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Taile,… is vsed for the fee, which is opposite to fee simple: by reason that it is so … minced, or pared, that it is not in his free power to be disposed,… but is … tyed to the issue of the Donee…. This limitation, or taile, is either generall, or speciall.
1718. Prior, Chameleon, 7. As if the Rain-bow were in Tail Settled on him [a Chameleon] and his Heirs Male.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. vii. 115. The incidents to a tenancy in tail.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 463. All estates given in tail … shall become fee simple estates to the issue of the first donee in tail [cf. quot. 1876].
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xiii. (1876), 177. The defendant a donee in tail, i.e. a person in whose behalf an estate tail had been created.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. xv. 516. All donees in tail, by the act of this first republican legislature of Virginia, were vested with the absolute dominion of the properly entailed.
1893. Mary Cholmondeley, D. Tempest, iii. You’re in the tail, I suppose?
b. With qualifying adjective: tail general, limitation of an estate to a man and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten; tail special, limitation of an estate to a special class of heirs, e.g., to a man and his wife and the heirs of their bodies lawfully begotten; tail male (or female), limitation of an estate to male (or female) heirs.
1495. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 485/1. Seised, in his or their Demeane as of Fee, Fee Tayll generall or speciall, or any other astate.
1503. Hawes, Examp. Virt., xiv. 10. To whome heuen by tayll generall Entayled is by a dede memoryall.
1642. trans. Perkins’ Prof. Bk., v. § 302. 134. If Tenant in generall taile, take a wife and enfeoff a stranger, and take back an estate unto him and his wife in speciall taile.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4735/4. Then to his first Son in Tail Male, then to his Daughter in Tail general.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. vii. 113.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 707. They agreed to grant their lands in tail male in preference to tail general.
1844. Williams, Real Prop. (1877), 35. An estate in tail male cannot descend to any but males, and male descendants of males. Ibid. Tail female scarcely ever occurs.
IV. † 4. = TALLY sb.1 1; hence, a score, an account. By tail, by means of tallies; on credit. (Cf. on tick) Obs. [Cf. Cotgr. ‘Taille … also, a tallie, or score kept on a peece of wood.’]
[1114–18. Leges Henrici I., c. 56 § 1. Si … controuersia oriatur, siue de taleis agatur siue de supplecione in ipso manerio.
1312. Rolls of Parlt., I. 284/1. Les gentz ount diverses acquitaunces, les unes par tailes & par brefs, & les unes par diverses fraunchises.]
a. 1325. trans. Estatuz del Eschekere (MS. Rawl. B. 520, lf. 36 b). Ȝif ani bringe taille ase of paie imad ate chekere.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. IV. 45. He … bereþ awei my whete, And takeþ me bote a tayle [B. IV. 58 taile, taille] of Ten quarter oten.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 570. Wheither that he payde, or took by taille [v.rr. taile, tayle].
1443. Hen. VI., Lett., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. I. 81. Ther shall be made and delivered … sufficient assignement for your repaiement therof by tailles to be rered at the said Eschequier.
1512. Earl Northumberland’s Househ. Bk. (1770), 172. The stok of the Tail to be delivert to the Brewar ande the Swatche to the Butler.
1530. Palsgr., 184. Vnes taylles, a payre of taylles, suche as folke use to score upon for rekennyng. Ibid., 644/1. I nycke, I make nyckes on a tayle, or on a stycke, je oche.
1556. Withals, Dict., 56 a/2. A score or tayle to marke the dette vpon, tessera, vel tessella.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v., Taile in the other signification, is what we vulgarly call a Tallie;… a clouen peece of wood to nick vp an accoumpt vpon.
1647. City Law London, 49. A Taile of debt ensealed by usage of the city, is as strong as an obligation.
1677. Cary, Chronol., I. I. I. i. 2. These were the Tailles (as I may so say) by which they marked … the Signal Occurrences of their Life.
† b. fig. Account, reckoning. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 896. Wyþoute seriauntz & oþer pytaille Þat ar nought for to sette in taille. Ibid., 1316. Þre hundred schipes þer was in taille, And foure mo.
1421. Coventry Leet Bk., 24. Hit is do the maiour to witt þat tauerners haue sold wyne to certen men of hur alye, be Tailes maid bytwen them, derre than þe maiour hathe ordenyd hit to be sold.
5. Comb. † tail-maker, (?) one who fashioned the tallies used in the Exchequer; † tailstick, a tally-stick. Obs.
1235–52. Rentalia Glaston. (Som. Rec. Soc.), 217. j porcellum et taylstich’ cujuslibet porci necati provenientis de sua custodia.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 71. Other officers are Tellers, Auditors, Collectors, rentgatherers, tailemakers.
