Forms: 5–6 taly(e, 6 tallye, tallee, tale, 6–7 talie, tallie, talle, 7–9 talley, 6– tally. [In 15th c. talye = AF. (14th c.) tallie = Anglo-L. tālea, tālia, tallia, in same sense, L. tālea, cutting, rod, stick. The doublet taille, taile, TAIL sb.2, from French taille, was in earlier use, and did not become obsolete till 17th c.]
1. A stick or rod of wood, usually squared, marked on one side with transverse notches representing the amount of a debt or payment. The rod being cleft lengthwise across the notches, the debtor and creditor each retained one of the halves, the agreement or tallying of which constituted legal proof of the debt, etc. Cf. TAIL sb.2 4.
[1189. (Aug.) Gervase of Cant., Op. Hist. (Rolls), I. 453. Videlicet ut conventus Monachos tres vel quatuor ad custodiendas villas ordinaret, qui redditibus omnibus thesaurariis a conventu constitutis per taleas responderent.
1203. in Placit. Abbrev. (1811), 38/2. Eustacius … inde producit sectam et talliam ostendit quam fecerunt.
1321–2. Rolls of Parlt., I. 401/1. Illoques pristrent des biens … pur lour sustenaunce saunz paiement fere ou tallie al gardeyn du dit leu.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 486/1. Taly, or talye,… talia, tallia.
1545. Brinklow, Compl., vi. (1874), 19. Ye shal not haue hir redy mony neyther, but a taly.
1552. Huloet, Talye or tale vsed in receypte, tessera,… tesserula,… dimin. a lyttle or shorte tallye.
1557. Order of Hospitalls, H ij. The Tallyes of the same Baker and Bruer shalbe in the custodie and keping of the Thresorer.
a. 1628. Preston, New Covt. (1634), 323. There is a law in the mind within, answerable to the law of God without;… it answers as Tallie answers to Tallie.
1756. Gentl. Mag., XXVI. 606/1. Harry, who ought to have minded the Tallies of the milk-score.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., xiv. It is like comparing the two parts of a cloven tally.
1881. Whitehead, Hops, 62. In some cases the very old fashioned method prevails of cutting notches upon wooden tallies, one part kept by the picker, the counterpart by the measurer.
b. Such a cloven rod, as the official receipt formerly given by the Exchequer for a tax, tallage, etc., paid, or in acknowledgement of a loan to the sovereign.
[1166. Pipe Roll 12 Hen. II. (1888), 2 Et x. li. in 11 talliis.
1178. Dialogus de Scaccario, v. Quid ad factorem talearum.
1284. Provis. Exch. (St. Rec. Comm. I. 69/1). Omnes illi qui habent tallias de scaccario de debitis suis vel antecessorum suorum.]
a. 1604. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 208. Calmagh burnt all the rolles and tallyes of that countie.
1626. Chas. I., in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 264. Acquittances to be given you, which shall be your warrant for striking tallies and for repayment hereafter.
a. 1692. Pollexfen, Disc. Trade (1697), 70. When any Tax or Imposition is granted by Parliament, Tallies, Exchequer Notes or Bills, issued out upon the same, for the supplying of the Government with Ready Money till the Duties be paid.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3328/4. Lost … a Talley of 300 l. on Wines and Tobacco, Dated the 11th of March, 1695, No. 2329.
1738. Hist. Crt. Excheq., v. 91. To pay in their Rents into the Exchequer, and take Tallies from thence.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., II. ii. (1869), I. 319. In 1696, tallies had been at forty, and fifty, and sixty per cent. discount, and bank notes at twenty per cent.
1847. J. Francis, Hist. Bank Eng., iv. 59. Tallies lay bundled up like Bath faggots in the hands of brokers, and stock-jobbers.
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., s.v., The use of tallies in the Exchequer was abolished by 23 Geo. III c. 82, and the old tallies were ordered to be destroyed by 4 & 5 Wm. IV c. 15.
1896. Anson, Law & Cust. Constit., II. vii. II. i. 329, note 2. In 1834 … orders were given to destroy the tallies. They were used as fuel in the stoves which warmed the Houses of Parliament; they overheated the flues and burned down the Houses.
† c. Tally of pro (i.e., pro, for or in favor of some one), tally of sol (i.e., solutum, paid): see quot. 1843. Obs.
1691. W. Lowndes, Acc. Revenue Eng., 88 (MS.). The Tally of Pro called also the Tally of Assignement Imports on the same Stick both a Receipt and payment.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3157/4. Lost … a Tally of Pro, dated the 18th of May 1695, in the Name of John Richards, Esq; for 300l. struck on the Commissioners of His Majesty’s Hereditary and Temporary Revenues of Excise. Ibid., No. 3244/4. Lost a Talley of 100l. upon the Temporal Excise, struck the 5th of Aug. 1696, pro Edvardo Nicholas. Ibid. (1697), No. 3308/4. Lost…, a Talley of Pro No. 90. struck Aug., 6, 1696, in the Name of Edward Nicholas Esq; for 100 l. in part of 35000 l. by him Lent the 2d of July, 1696, upon the Hered’ and Temp’ Excise. Ibid. (1703), No. 3933/4. The Tallies of Pro, levied upon the Surplus of the Duties on Malt.
1843. Fourth Rep. Dep. Kpr., App. II. 166. The Tally of Sol … whereon the word sol was written, to show that the money … had been paid into the Exchequer. Ibid. The Tally of Pro … operated as a modern cheque on a banker, being given forth in payment from the Exchequer, as a charge upon some public accountant, for him to pay the sum expressed thereon, out of the revenues in his hands.
1896. Anson, Law & Cust. Constit., II. vii. II. i. 329.
d. transf. Any tangible means of recording a payment or amount.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. x. (1876), 258. Each customer, when he makes a purchase, receives certain tin tickets or tallies, which record the amount of his purchases.
† 2. The record of an amount due; a score or shot, an account. Obs.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 170. In buieng of drinke, by the firkin or pot, The tallie ariseth, but hog amendes not.
1828. Life Planter Jamaica, 55. Keep tally of their number.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, vii. To measure the milk and keep the tally.
† b. Naut. Petty tally, a petty account kept of a ship’s provisions, orig. of a certain portion; hence transf. provisions. Obs.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 39. How to keep his Petty Tally. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., xv. 74. A Commander at Sea should doe well … to consider … how to … prouide his petty Tally. Ibid., 75. There is neither … Grocer, Poulterer,… nor Butchers shop, and therefore the vse of this petty Tally is necessary.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, VI. (1704), 519/2. Beer, Cask, Bread, and Petty-Talley … 12l.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Petty-Tally, in Navigation is a competent proportion of edible and potable commodities in a ship, according to the number of the Ships company.
1823. in Crabbe, Technol. Dict.
1847. in Craig.
† c. Upon the tally: on credit, ‘on tick’; by running up a score. Obs.
1807. Sporting Mag., XXIX. 185. To buy goods upon the Tally. (This term Tally, Mr. Garrow said, was not much known to the public.)
3. fig. (from 1 and 2). Reckoning, score, account. Now rare.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. (1634), 214. Ordinary occurrences, that are to be numbred by a shorter Tally [than by the year].
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., IV. 1807. Left they upon thy Tally all that sin.
1648. C. Walker, Hist. Independ., I. 96. He that hath a Tally of every mans faults but his own hanging at his Girdle.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., xxxviii. He threatened To weare it worthy, and a Tally make or slaughter, to outvye his shopboard’s Chalke.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t. (1870), I. i. 14. It is stamped on his brain, and lives there thenceforward, a tally for nature, and a test of art.
4. Each of the two corresponding halves or parts of anything; a thing, or part, that exactly fits or agrees with another thing or corresponding part; a counterpart; fig. an agreement, correspondence.
1651. Cleveland, Mixt Assembly, 35. Whose Members being not tallies, they’l not own Their fellows at the Resurrection.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, V.
| Dor. He only merits her; she only him. | |
| So payr’d, so suited in their minds and Persons, | |
| That they were fram’d the Tallyes for each other. |
1816. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 297. If histories so unlike … can … be brought to the same tally, no line of distinction remains between fact and fancy.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 266. The bit of which key is so cut or shaped as to form a complete tally with the interior machinery.
1906. Edin. Rev., Jan., 207. Here he will find again the tally between proportion and thought.
b. To live (on) tally, to live in concubinage, to cohabit without marriage. slang.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 246. I never took to a moll except on tally. Ibid., vi. 377. A man she was then living ‘tally’ with.
1890. N. & Q., 7th Ser. X. 297/2. To ‘live tally’ is quite a common expression amongst the working classes in Lancashire, as is also tally-woman.
1901. Mabel Peacock, in Folk-Lore, June, 174. He had for years been ‘living tally’ with a woman—that is in cohabitation without marriage.
5. A number, group, series, lot, tale; esp. a certain number or group (of things or persons) taken as the unit of computation. Also, ‘a company or division of voters at an election’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.): see quot. 1774.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 56. Every tally by which we tell things must be either even or odd.
1683. Kennett, trans. Erasm. on Folly, 102. When they tone out their daily Tally of Psalms.
1725. Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Wall, Some Bricks … are broken, in every Load or 500 Bricks; and the Tally or Tale, is, for the most part,… too little.
1774. Burke, Sp. Concl. Poll, Wks. III. 16. Mr. Brickdale opened his poll, it seems, with a tally of those very kind of freemen, and voted many hundreds of them.
1843. Lever, J. Hinton, xvii. (1878), 123. We told them off by tallies as they marched on board.
1886. Pall Mall G., 4 June, 14/1. Some few years ago … Victoria was well ahead of New South Wales in the tally of her people.
1889. 19th Cent., Nov., 755. Though we had three deaths during the passage, as we also had three births, our tally remained correct.
1890. Science, 12 Dec., 323. All the Indians … were drawn up in tallies, and arranged according to families.
1892. Labour Commission Gloss., Tally, a check account made by a person receiving goods;… used for the number of bricks or tons of other goods carried on canal boats and river barges.
b. spec. In market-gardening, Five dozen (cabbages, bunches of turnips, etc.).
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 92. I buy turnips by the ‘tally.’ A tally’s five dozen bunches.
1883. Daily News, 6 Sept., 2/7. Cauliflowers, 5s. per tally.
1891. Times, 28 Sept., 4/2. Cabbages, 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per tally;… marrows, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per tally.
c. spec. In hop-picking, A specified number of bushels that have to be picked for one shilling: see quot. 1904, and cf. quot. 1881 in 1.
1868. A Hop-sketch, in Derby Mercury, 12 Feb. Back at the ‘tally’ to play your part.
1891. Scott. Leader, 24 Sept., 7. A strike has occurred among the hop-pickers … owing to alleged ‘excessive measure and high tally.’
1904. Daily Chron., 29 Aug., 8/3. The pay is … at the rate of 1s. for a certain number of bushels, called the ‘tally,’ which varies from five to eight or nine, according to the growth of the hops.
d. The last of a specified number forming a unit of computation, on the completion of which the tally-man calls ‘tally’ and notes it down.
1886. P. Clarke, New Chum in Australia, xii. 175. As a ‘hundred’ is called, one of us calls out ‘tally,’ and cuts one notch in a stick.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., s.v., If the articles are counted singly, they are called out up to the nineteenth; but instead of … ‘twenty,’ the word tally is substituted; thus ‘eighteen, nineteen, tally.’… In counting articles that can be lifted in groups the tale is thus made—‘five, ten, fifteen, tally.’
† 6. A mark (such as the notch of a tally) representing a unit quantity, or a series or set of units.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), III. 314. In Courts had all their Heart’s desire, For every Kiss a Tally. Ibid., IV. 264. He notcht his Arse with Tallies.
1807. Crabbe, Parish Reg., I. 252. Where chalky tallies yet remain in rows.
7. A distinguishing mark on a bale or case of merchandise, etc., corresponding to one in a list, for the purpose of comparison or identification; hence, a mark, label, ticket, or tab, used for this purpose, or to denote the weight and contents, etc.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, vi. § 324. But the air is invisible; and it is not easily perceived how either marks or tallies may be put on it, that it may be traced.
1865. Morning Star, 27 Jan. I entered the weights in the landing-book, and marked them in the tallies … and I saw a great number of the tallies afterwards put on the bales.
b. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1883. Gresley, Coal Mining Gloss., Tally, a mark or number placed by a collier upon every tub of coals loaded…. They are usually little bits of tin having a number stamped upon them.
1890. N. & Q., 7th Ser. X. 297/2. At many pits it is customary to send the tubs of coals to bank with tin tallies attached…. This tally is so that the banksmen and weighmen may place the coals to the credit of the men working in the banks below, the banks and tallies bearing the same numbers.
c. spec. in Gardening, A tab or label of wood, metal, etc., on which are inscribed the name, class, etc., of the plant or tree to which it is attached, or beside which it is stuck in the ground.
1822. Loudon, Encycl. Gard., III. IV. 1190. Every plant [in a Botanical Garden] ought to have its name painted on strong cast-iron talleys.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIV. 17/1. Many different kinds of tally are used in gardens and arboretums, to bear either numbers referring to a catalogue, or the names of the plants near which they are placed.
1870. Thornbury, Tour Eng., I. i. 23. The … gray stone, the tally to mark a seed plot in Death’s neglected garden.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XII. 234/2. Tallies of wood [in horticulture] should be slightly smeared with white paint and then written on while damp with a black-lead pencil.
d. A tie-label, tab, or tag for luggage, etc.
1909. Advt. Temple Tower Tallies, 1d. per packet, strung ready for use.
¶ 8. Used as = TAIL sb.2 2 b. Obs.
1609. Overbury, Observ. St. France, Wks. (1856), 238. The gentrie are the onely entire body there, which participate with the prerogatives of the crowne; for from it they receive … supply to their estates, by governments and pensions, and freedome from tallies upon their owne lands.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 74. When one hath seene the Tally and taillage of France,… the Assise of Holland, the Gabels of Italy,… hee will blesse God, and love England better ever after.
9. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib. and obj. gen., as (from 1, 1 b) tally-broker, -court, -cutter, -office, -stick; (from 2, 2 b) tally-book, -check, -keeper, -table; b. in reference to the installment or petty credit system (cf. 2 c) worked by the TALLYMAN, as tally-business, -draper, -master, -pack-man, -room, -shop, -system, -trade. c. Special combs.: tally-board, a board on which an account is notched or chalked; e.g., one on which the record of a weaver’s work is kept (Eng. Dial. Dict.); tally-clerk, one who checks merchandise with a list in loading or discharging cargo; also (U.S.), one who assists in counting and recording votes; tally-husband (slang), a man who ‘lives tally’ (4 b) with a woman; tally-mark = sense 7; tally-pot, a vessel in which records of a counting or voting are placed (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895); tally-room (Ireland), a committee-room at an election; tally-sheet, a score-sheet, esp. (U.S.) in recording votes; tally-shouter (Mining), see quot.; tally-stick, a stick used as or like a tally (sense 1); tally-writer, formerly, the clerk who wrote the description and amount of the payment on two opposite sides of the exchequer tallies. See also TALLYMAN, WOMAN.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, vii. You have not got the *tally board so completely in your hand, my friend.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1717), IV. 154. Such a Money-Monger, such a *Tally-Broker, and Cheater of the Publick.
1851. *Tally-business [see tally-master].
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xxvii. You’re not connected with—with the tally business, are you, sir?
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 10 Oct., 13/4. Rudely inscribed potsherds … *tally-checks scrawled with entries of time-labour and food wages.
1890. Daily News, 13 Sept., 6/4. A large number of ships’ *tally clerks,… have not had a day’s work for weeks.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 25 Feb., 2/1. There is a duplicate of this board, but on a small scale, placed on the desk of the tally-clerk, so that the record of the votes is constantly before his eyes.
1684. E. Chamberlayne, Pres. St. Eng., II. (ed. 15), 105. In the *Tally Court—the *Tally-cutter attends.
1786. St. Paper, in Ann. Reg., 193/1. The tally writer … takes an account of the sum, and writes it on both sides of the tally delivered to him, with the sum cut upon it in notches by the tally-cutter.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols, xviii. 247. Ocher … threw up his office of *tally-keeper.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 383/2. The ‘travellers’ … are occasionally shopmen, for a ‘large’ *tally-master not unfrequently carries on a retail trade in addition to his tally-business.
1631. Sir S. D’Ewes, Jrnl. Parlt. (1783), 52. That unjust and rare recorde called Domesdei in the *tallie-office of the Exchequer.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 381/1. The pedlar or hawking tallyman travels for orders…. The great majority of the *tally-packmen are Scotchmen.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xvii. The popular tunes … in the *tally rooms, while the fellows are waiting to go up.
1910. Daily News, 24 Jan., 8. Mr. Wood could neither show himself in the place nor get a tally-room, as they call their committee-rooms there [Lisburn].
1889. Century Mag., Feb., 622/1. The growing disposition [in U.S.] to tamper with the ballot-box and the *tally-sheet.
1893. Scribner’s Mag., June, 779/2. To call her attention to a tally-sheet, covering a period of three calendar months.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 37/1. The poor,… pawnbrokers, loan-offices, *tally-shops, dolly-shops, are the only parties who will trust them.
1870. Public Opinion, 16 July. [He] described from personal inspection the low quality of the provisions supplied in the tally-shops.
1883. Gresley, Coal Mining Gloss., *Tally-shouter, one who shouts out the numbers on the tallies to the weigher.
1895. Hoffman, Beginnings of Writ., 140. Several tribes of Indians, in California, employed a variety of *tallysticks to record transactions in business.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 49. They hopefully notched away the moons on their tally-sticks.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 372/2. Some had been unsuccessful as tallymen when shopkeepers, or travellers for tally-shops, and have resorted to hawking, or street-trading,… blending the *tally system with the simple rules of sale for ready money.
1829. Cobbett, Adv. Yng. Man, ii. 60. The *‘Tally-trade’ by which household goods, coals, clothing, all sorts of things are sold upon credit, the seller keeping a tally, and receiving payment … little by little.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. L., I. 383/1. Establishments, ‘doing largely’ in the tally-trade.
1786. *Tally writer [see tally-cutter].
