Tributary

a. and sb. [ad. L. tribūtāri-us: see next and -ARY¹. Cf. F. tributaire (12th c. in Godef., Compl.).]

  A.  adj. 1. Paying tribute; subject to imposts.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Macc. xiii. 39. Ȝif eny other thing was tributarye [gloss] or bounden to tribute, in Jerusalem, nowe be it not tributarie.

1422.  trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., xxxiii. 185. Al … by-came lyeges and Subiectes tributarijs by grete othis for ham and hare kyngedomes and lordshuppes.

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., II. xlviii. 31. At those dayes a great parte of y^e worlde was trybutary to Rome.

1570–6.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), p. xii. These therefore were by Iulius Cæsar subdued to the Romane Empire, and their countrie made a tributarie Province.

1665.  Dryden, Ind. Emp., I. ii. This Charles is some poor Tributary Lord.

1786.  Burke, W. Hastings, III. III. xxviii. Wks. XI. 460. As far independent as a tributary prince could be.

1845.  Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 9. Many states, hitherto independent, were compelled to become tributary to the Company.

  b.  fig.

c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 89. Þat fretynge aduersarie Myn hert[e] made to hym tributarie.

1577.  Hellowes, Gueuara’s Chron., 232. Traiane did vse to say, that Rome was more tributarie then any place of the world: for that they could not eate, but if it were giuen them from other kingdomes.

1796.  Burney, Mem. Metastasio, II. 218. Productions … for which they used to be tributary to the industry of other nations.

  2.  transf. and fig. Furnishing subsidiary supplies or aid; subsidiary, auxiliary, contributory; also said of a stream or river which flows into another.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 37. Th’emperious Seas breeds Monsters; for the Dish, Poore Tributary Riuers, as sweet Fish.

1764.  Goldsm., Trav., 49. For me your tributary stores combine.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. vii. 57. I climbed up among the tributary glaciers.

1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 5. With reference therefore to the rivers tributary to the Thames.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 651. The neuralgia may affect the whole of the tributary nerves of the plexus.

  3.  Paid or offered as tribute; of the nature of tribute; contributory.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 159. Loe at this Tombe my tributarie teares, I render.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., II. 55. They pay a yearly tributary pension vnto the great Turke.

1771.  Poetry, in Ann. Reg., 206. Immortal fame Shall grace with tributary praise thy name.

1780.  Cowper, Table Talk, 112. Many a dunce, whose fingers itch to write, Adds, as he can, his tributary mite.

1814.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, I. i. Each minstrel’s tributary lay Paid homage to the festal day.

  4.  Of which one bears the cost; expensive.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., I. 9. The chargeable expences of a tributary iourney. Ibid., III. 114. This tributary, tedious, and sumptuous peregrination.

  B.  sb. (Absolute use of the adj. So in Fr.)

  1.  One who pays tribute. Also fig.

[c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xii. (Mathias), 123. With trybvtaris he fled þane to þe towne of Ierusaleme.]

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 275. For Sicambri were tributaryes to thempyre of Rome vn to the tyme of Valentinian.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Macc. i. 4. He … subdued y^e londes and people with their prynces, so that they became tributaries vnto him.

1612.  Sir J. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1787), 10. The Irish Lords did only promise to become tributaries to King Henry the Second. And such as pay only tribute … are not properly subjects but sovereigns.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Alsop’s St. Conform., Wks. 1711, IV. 119. Living a constant Tributary to those Vermin the Bailiffs.

1866.  Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 509. A tributary and vassal to the English monarch.

  2.  transf. and fig. One who or that which furnishes subsidiary supplies or aid. a. spec. A stream contributing its flow to a larger stream or lake; an affluent, feeder.

  (Not in Todd 1818, Webster 1828, or Craig 1849.)

1810.  The Gleaner (PA), 30 March, 3/1. Delightful and extensive valley: sufficiently watered by the Susquehannah and its tributary streams.

1836.  W. Irving, Astoria, III. 261. A fortified post and port … commanding the trade of that river and its tributaries.

1846.  M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 35. The Medway can hardly be called a tributary of the Thames; but … it falls into the æstuary of the latter.

1866.  M. Arnold, Thyrsis, xi. What sedged brooks are Thames’s tributaries.

1897.  Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 354. Two new rivers … both of which he surmised were tributaries of the Congo.

  b.  Of other things.

1859.  Cornwallis, Panorama New World, I. 137. At the foot of this terraced hill was the necropolis, and near it its tributary, the Bendigo Hospital.

1859.  Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, ii. The lower sphere might be said, at a rough guess, to be thirteen times larger than the upper, which naturally performed the function of a mere satellite and tributary.

1870.  Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Bks., Wks. (Bohn), III. 84. The great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.

  Hence Tributarily adv., Tributariness.

1727.  Bailey, vol. II., Tributariness, the Condition or State of those that pay Tribute.

1901.  Courier-Journal (KY), 27 Aug., 6/2. The Dominion make no other claims than mere provincial tributariness to the organization in the motherland.

1847.  Webster, Tributarily, adv. in a tributary manner.

1882.  Fort Scott (KS) Daily Monitor, 26 Dec., 1/2. Spelter and zinc in its manufactured forms, in Europe, shall be kept in at a certain price fixed tributarily by themselves.