Obs. Forms: 3–6 truage, treuage, 4 truwage, 4–5 trowage, 4–6 trewage, 4–7 trouage, 5 triwage, trywage. [a. OF. treuage (12th c. in Godef.) tribute, f. OF. trëud, trëu (Roland, 11th c.):—L. tribūt-em TRIBUTE + -AGE.] Tribute.
c. 1275. Lay., 7189. Romleode Com to þissere þeode, And setten truage in þisse lond [c. 1205 and sette ȝeld a þisse londe]. Ibid., 25044. Nou axeþ þorh cunde truage of þis londe.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 7. Grete treunge þei toke of þis lond here.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 57. Þerfore trowages and þe kynges rentys encresys.
c. 1440. Generydes, 1792. Defende your lande that it pay noo trewage.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xl. 125. When he hath wonne a countrey … he desyreth nothynge but truage.
1530. Palsgr., 283/1. Trunge, trybute, treuaige.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T. (1613), 104. Our God … asketh no other treuage at our handes for giuing, but asking and thanksgiuing.
1661. Morgan, Sph. Gentry, II. viii. 102. At Rome hastily will I be: not to give you Truage but to have Truage of you.
b. Toll, custom; payment for some privilege.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1731. ‘Ȝe mote furst,’ quaþ þe Sarazyn, ‘syþþe ȝe þyder fondeþ, For þe truwage make fyn þat to þis brigge longeþ.’
14[?]. Cov. Corp. Christi Pl., i. 524. Nor also aleond stranger throȝ my realme pas, But the[y] for there truage do pay markis fyve.
1596. Warner, Alb. Eng., X. lx. For their Charters did they offer … to undergo all Truage, Taxe and Charge.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 49. Wooll Key, where was used to be the Trounge of Woolls.
¶ Misused for ‘homage.’
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse (ed. 2), 31. As he should stoop to doo him truage, he might seaze vpon his throat and stifle him.
Hence † Trewager Obs., one subject to tribute, a tributary. (Cf. homager.)
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 45. Þe folk wild not suffre to be treuwageres.
