tithe

 

From Middle English tithe, tythe, tethe, from Old English tēoþa, tēoða, teogoþa (in verb senses via Middle English tithen, tythen, tethen, from Old English tēoþian, teogoðian), from a proposed Proto-Germanic *tehunþô, *tehundô (“a tenth”), with its nasal consonant being lost according to the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law. Cognate with West Frisian tsiende (“tithe”), Saterland Frisian Teeged (“tithe”), Dutch tiende, German Low German Teihnte, German Zehnt (“tithe”), Danish tiende (“tithe”), Icelandic tíund (“tithe”), Dutch tiende (“tithe”).

• IPA^(key): /taɪð/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪð

tithe (plural tithes)

1. (archaic) A tenth.
   • 1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range:

     But really that gold was not half
     That a king might have hoped to compel—
     Not a half, not a third, not a tithe.

2. (historical) The tenth part of the increase arising from the profits of land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support, as in England, or devoted to religious or charitable uses; a tax taking ten percent of land or stock profits, used for religious or charitable purposes.

   Synonyms: decim, (Italian contexts) decima, decimate, decimation, tithing, titheling

   • 1705, William Forbes, A Treatise of Church-lands & Tithes‎^[1], page 284:

     For this is abundantly confuted by the Constitutions and Practice of these Christian States where Tithes have been variously settled, for maintenance of the Evangelical Priest-hood ; and other pious Uses, by legal and civil Tithes, which imply a Debitum Justitiæ.

   • 1917, The English Reports: Exchequer, page 789:

     That there is and from time immemorial has been within that part of the parish called Mablethorpe St. Mary's a laudable custom that, if any outdweller take ancient pasture ground, he shall pay a modus of 4d. an acre, and so in proportion, on the 1st of August, in lieu of all manner of tithe; and that if any of the ancient pasture be once ploughed up or meadowed, it shall, when restored to pasture again, pay 4d. the acre in the hands of such outdweller.

3. A contribution to one's religious community or congregation of worship (notably to the LDS church).
4. A small part or proportion.
   • 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:

     Prayers and calling-over seemed twice as short as usual, and before they could get construes of a tithe of the hard passages marked in the margin of their books, they were all seated round, and the Doctor was standing in the middle, talking in whispers to the master.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Presentiment”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 126:

     I scarcely know any thing that really interests me, and I would give a great deal not to be so quick-sighted as I am; it would be so pleasant to believe only a tithe of the professions that are made me.

• tithe proctor (“levier or collector of a tithe”)

tithe (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Tenth.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Euery tythe ſoule, 'mongſt many thouſand diſmes,

tithe (third-person singular simple present tithes, present participle tithing, simple past and past participle tithed)

1. To give one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly:
   1. (transitive) To pay something as a tithe.
      • 854, "Grant by Adulf" in Cartularium Saxonicum, Book ii, 79:

        He teoðode gynd eall his cyne rice ðone teoðan del ealra his landa.

      • 1967 August 6, Observer, section 4:

        A reply sent to a young member by the sect's letter-answering department was more precise: ‘A person working for wages is to tithe one-tenth of the total amount of his wages before income tax, national health, or other deductions are removed.’

   2. (transitive) To pay a tithe upon something.
      • c. 897, King Alfred translating St Gregory, Pastoral Care, Chapter lvii:

        ...ge tiogoðiað eowre mintan & eowerne dile & eowerne kymen.

      • 1562, F.J. Furnivall, editor, Child-marriages... in the Diocese of Chester A.D. 1561-6, page 138:

        The maner of tiething pigge and gose is, yf one have vij^th, to pay one.

      • 1901, Xenophon, translated by H.G. Dakyns, Anabasis, Book V, Chapter iii, §9:

        Here with the sacred money [Xenophon] built an altar and a temple, and ever after, year by year, tithed the fruits of the land in their season and did sacrifice to the goddess.

   3. (intransitive) To pay a tithe; to pay a 10% tax

      Synonym: decimate

      • a. 1200, Trinity College Homilies, 215:

        Þe prest þe meneȝeð rihtliche teðien.

      • 1942 September, Esquire, page 174:

        They went to the Six Hickories church—tithed—and behaved themselves.

   4. (intransitive, figuratively) To pay or offer as a levy in the manner of a tithe or religious tax.
      • 1630, Anonymous translation of Giovanni Botero, anonymously translated as Relations of the Most Famous Kingdomes and Common-wealths, p. 510:

        These slaves are either the sonnes of Christians, tithed in their childhoods, Captives taken in the warres, or Renegadoes.

      • 1976 June 20, Billings Gazette, C1:

        Former Southern officers prospered and tithed up to 50 percent for Civil War II, which never came.

2. To take one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly:
   • c. 1000, Ælfric, Homilies, Vol. I, 178:

     gif we teoðiað þas gearlican dagas, þonne beoð þær six and ðritig teoðing-dagas.

   1. (transitive) To impose a tithe upon someone or something.
      • 1382, Wycliffite Bible, Hebrews 7:9:

        Leeuy, that took tithis, is tithid.

      • 1843, Frederick Marryat, chapter XI, in Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet, in California, Sonora, & Western Texas, volume III, page 212:

        The cost... has been defrayed by tithing the whole Mormon Church. Those who reside at Nauvoo... have been obliged to work every tenth day in quarrying stone.

   2. (transitive) To spare only every tenth person, killing the rest (usually in relation to the sacking of the episcopal seat at Canterbury by the pagan Danes in 1011).
      • 1387, Ranulf Higden, translated by John de Trevisa, Polychronicon, VII, 89:

        Þe folk of Crist was tiþed, þat is to seie, nyne slayn and þe tenþe i-kepte.

      • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, vi, 256:

        The multitude are tith'd, and every tenth only spar'd.

   3. (transitive) To enforce or collect a tithe upon someone or something.

      Synonyms: decimate, tithe out

      • 1591, The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn King of England, i, G:

        The Monkes the Priors and holy cloystred Nunnes,
        Are all in health,...
        Till I had tythde and tolde their holy hoords.

      • a. 1642, Henry Best, The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, published 1984, page 26:

        When the parson or Procter commeth to tythe his wooll.

   4. (transitive, obsolete) To decimate: to kill every tenth person, usually as a military punishment.

      Synonym: decimate

      • 1606, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens:

        By decimation, and a tithed death, / ... take thou the destin'd tenth

      • 1609, A. Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland, The Romane Historie, D, iii:

        The Thebane Legion... was first tithed, that is, every tenth man thereof was executed.

      • 1610, William Camden, translated by Philemon Holland, A Chorographicall Description of... England, Scotland, and Ireland, i, 705:

        Keeping aliue... two principall persons, that they might be tithed with the soldiors... Every tenth man of the Normans they chose out by lot, to be executed.

   5. (intransitive) To enforce or collect a tithe.
      • 1822, Thomas Love Peacock, chapter VI, in Maid Marian, page 210:

        Those who tithe and toll upon them for their spiritual and temporal benefit.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To compose the tenth part of something.
   • 1586, William Warner, Albions England: A Continued Historie, i, v, 15:

     Her sorrowes did not tith her ioy.

• tithed
• tithe out
• tithing

• Hiett

• tighthe (superseded)
• toighthe

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʲɪhɪ/
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /ˈtʲiː/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ˠɪhə/^[1] (corresponding to the form toighthe)

tithe m pl

1. plural of teach (“house”)
2. housing

   Synonym: tithíocht

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “tithe”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “tithe”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “tithe”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024
• Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 44

• tethe, teþe, teoþe, teouþe, tewthe, teythe, teyþe, tiþe, tyth, tythe, tyþe
• teoheðe, teoðe, tieðe, tigeðe, tigðe, tiȝeþe (Early Middle English)

Inherited from Old English tēoþa, teogoþa, from Proto-West Germanic *tehundō, *tegundō, from Proto-Germanic *tehundô, *tegundô; equivalent to ten +‎ -the (ordinal suffix); compare tenthe.

• IPA^(key): /ˈteːð(ə)/, /ˈtiːð(ə)/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈtæi̯ð(ə)/, /ˈtiu̯ð(ə)/

tithe

1. tenth

• English: tithe (obsolete)

tithe (plural tithes)

1. One of ten equal parts of a whole; a tenth.
2. A tithe; a tenth of one's income given to clergy.

• tithen
• tither
• tithyng

• English: tithe
• Scots: teith (obsolete)

• “tīthe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “tīth(e, num.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.