Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A mound of earth, especially a small one, as in a flower-pot, in which plants can be set for household decoration.
- noun In old English law, an exaction or fee paid to the owner of the land for some license, privilege, or exemption, such, for instance, as leave to dig or break the earth for a grave, or in setting up a market or fair, or for freedom from service in tillage, or for being allowed an additional holding, etc.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Right of terrage or champart: the right of collecting, after the tithes, a portion of the produce of the ground.
The Ancient Regime Hippolyte Taine 1860
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Subsistence is impossible if three-quarters of the crops are to be taken for field-rents, terrage, etc. ...
The Ancient Regime Hippolyte Taine 1860
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The seignior of Blet collects terrage only on a certain number of the farms of his seigniory; "in relation to Brosses, it appears that all domains possessed by copyholders are subject to the right."
The Ancient Regime Hippolyte Taine 1860
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These rights of terrage are comprised in the leases of the farms of Blet and of
The Ancient Regime Hippolyte Taine 1860
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"In Bourbonnais, the terrage is collected in various ways, on the third sheaf, on the fifth, sixth, seventh, and commonly one-quarter; at Blet it is the twelfth."
The Ancient Regime Hippolyte Taine 1860
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(a cash commission on general produce), terrage parciere (share of fruits).
The Ancient Regime Hippolyte Taine 1860
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"What would become of the right of terrage on the land, of parciere on the fruit-trees, of carpot on the vines?
Scaramouche Rafael Sabatini 1912
qms commented on the word terrage
By terms of the tv room lease
Domestic trespasses cease,
And many a marriage
Is saved by such terrage
Ensuring connubial peace
This word is obsolete in English as a legal term. It probably came in with the Normans and I would expect that the Anglo-Saxons did the same violence to it that they would later do to “garage.” I have assumed that pronunciation in my limerick. The word is current in modern French but it is used to describe agricultural practices – tending to the land, amending the soil, etc. In French it is pronounced to rhyme with “wear large.”
April 4, 2015