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Apr 10, 2006

This week's theme
Death and taxes

This week's words
publican
thanatopsis
impost
anabiosis
capitation

Previous week’s theme
Terms imported from other languages

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Over the ages, the world's rulers have imposed all imaginable kinds of taxes on the populace. Taxes were once based on the number of hearths in a house (fumage), and there have been taxes to pay off raiding Danes (Danegeld).

In late seventeenth century, William III of UK imposed a window tax, levied on each window in a house.

Three hundred years later, William III of US imposed a Windows tax, levied on each personal computer manufactured, whether it had Windows or not, but I digress.

Death too comes in unexpected places. When we buy a house and sign a mortgage, let's keep in mind that the word derives from Old French mort (death) + gage (pledge).

In the US, April 15 is the deadline for filing tax return for the previous year. At one time the consequences of failure to pay taxes were severe but thankfully, today, the "dead"line is only metaphorical.

This week in AWAD we'll look at more words related to those two things few of us want to encounter.

publican

noun:
1. A tax collector.
2. An owner or manager of a pub or hotel.

[From Latin publicanus, from publicum (public revenue), from publicus (public), from populus (people).]

NOTES: In ancient Rome, the state farmed out the collection of taxes. The right to collect tax was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Tax collection agents, known as publicans, employed lower-level collectors who made good use of their license. For their severe methods of extraction of taxes, publicans were widely despised. Now, if a publican is a tax collector, what is a republican?

"'Haven't you robbed people enough -- taking their last shirts?' said a voice addressing the publican."
Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace; 1865-1869.

See more usage examples of publican in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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