impost

Definition

A tax, tariff or duty that is imposed, especially on merchandise.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French impost, itself borrowed or adapted from Latin impōsitus, past participle of impōnō (“I impose”).

Example Sentences

• "’Tis a Land-tax, vvhich he’s too poor to pay; / You, therefore muſt ſome other Impoſt lay."
• "1752, David Hume, Political Discourses, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, “Of Taxes,” p. 120, […] a duty upon commodities checks itself; and a prince will soon find, that an encrease of the impost is no encrease of his revenue."
• "[…] before the sequestration of emigrant property, I had remitted the imposts they had ceased to pay;"

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