tithe

tithe

See also: t-ithe

English

The Buckland Abbey tithe barn

Etymology

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”), German Zehnt (“tithe”), Danish tiende (“tithe”), Icelandic tíund (“tithe”), Dutch tiende (“tithe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taɪð/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪð

Noun

tithe (plural tithes)

1. (archaic) A tenth.
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.

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

   • 1705, William Forbes, A Treatise of Church-lands & Tithes‎, 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.

3. A contribution to one's religious community or congregation of worship (notably to the LDS church)
4. A small part or proportion.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, 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.

Derived terms

• titheless
• titheling
• titheman, tithe-man
• tithe-pig
• tithe proctor, tithe-proctor
• tither
• tithing

 

Translations

tenth — see tenth

tax paid to the Church

Catalan: delme (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 十一奉献 (shíyī fèngxiàn) Danish: tiende (da) Dutch: tiende deel Esperanto: dekonaĵo (eo) Finnish: kymmenykset (fi) pl, kirkollisvero (fi) French: dîme (fr) f Galician: dismo m, décimo (gl) m, sincura f, avinza (gl) f German: Zehnt (de) m Greek: δεκάτη (el) (dekáti) Hebrew: מַעֲשֵׂר‎ (he) m (ma'asér) Hungarian: tized (hu) Icelandic: tíund f Indonesian: persepuluhan (id) Irish: deachú f Italian: decima (it) Lithuanian: dešimtinė (lt) f Maori: whakatekau Middle English: tithe Norman: dgiême f Norwegian: Bokmål: tiende (no) m Nynorsk: tiend f Polish: dziesięcina (pl) f Portuguese: dízimo (pt) m Romanian: zeciuială (ro) Russian: (please verify) церко́вная десяти́на f (cerkóvnaja desjatína) Serbo-Croatian: desetina (sh) f Spanish: diezmo (es) m Swedish: tionde (sv) n Tagalog: pahunos Welsh: degwm (cy) m

a small part or proportion

Portuguese: décimo (pt) m Romanian: fărâmă (ro) f Russian: кро́шечка (ru) f (króšečka) Serbo-Croatian: desetinka (sh)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Romanian: zecime (ro), frimitura

See also

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

Adjective

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 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Euery tythe ſoule, 'mongſt many thouſand diſmes,

Verb

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, 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, ed., Child-marriages... in the Diocese of Chester A.D. 1561-6, p. 138:

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

      • 1901, H.G. Dakyns translating Xenophon's 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, p. 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 Gazzette, 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, Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet, in California, Sonora, & Western Texas, Vol. III, Ch. xi, p. 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 as 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, published in 1984 as The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, p. 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 as 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 as 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, Maid Marian, Ch. vi, p. 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.

Derived terms

• tithed
• tithe out
• tithing

Translations

to collect a tithe

Finnish: periä kymmenykset Maori: whakatekau Middle English: tithen

Anagrams

• Hiett

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Irish

Alternative forms

• tighthe (dated)
• toighthe

Pronunciation

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

Noun

tithe m pl

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

   Synonym: tithíocht

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
tithe	thithe	dtithe
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

1. Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 68

Further reading

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

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Middle English

Middle English numbers ^(edit)

		100
←  1	←  9	10		20  →
		1
Cardinal: ten     Ordinal: tenthe, tithe

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From 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.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

tithe

1. tenth

Descendants

• English: tithe (obsolete)

Noun

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.

Related terms

• tithen
• tither
• tithyng

Descendants

• English: tithe
• Scots: teith (obsolete)

References

• “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.