tithing en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈtaɪðɪŋ/
Etymology
From Middle English tithyng, from Old English tēoþung or tēoðung, from tēoða (“a tithe”) + -ing (suffix forming patronymics and diminutives) and tēoþian (“to tithe”) + -ung (suffix forming verbal nouns). Equivalent to tithe + -ing.
Meanings
-
A tithe or tenth in its various senses, (particularly): ▸ The tithe given as an offering to the church.
I prayed for the sick and saw some of them healed under my hands. I was given tithings of money and food by people who had not enough to eat themselves.
1998, Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents, HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP (2019), page 294:
- A tithe or tenth in its various senses, (particularly): ▸ The payment of tithes.
- A tithe or tenth in its various senses, (particularly): ▸ The collection of tithes.
-
(dialectal) Ten sheaves of wheat (originally set up as such for the tithe proctor).
I see the boys of summer in their ruin / Lay the gold tithings barren, / Setting no store by harvest, freeze the soils
1934, Dylan Thomas, “I see the boys of summer”, in 18 Poems, London: The Fortune Press:
- (historical) A body of households (originally a tenth of a hundred or ten households) bound by frankpledge to collective responsibility and punishment for each other's behavior.
- (historical) A part of the hundred as a rural division of territory.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| tithings | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
tithing-time · tithing days · tithingman · tithing-penny · tithing-man · tithing-barn · tithing port · tithing-system · tithing-sheaf · tithing table
Relateds
tithingman (oath-bound division of the hundred, leader) · decenary (oath-bound division of the hundred, member) · decenary (oath-bound division of the hundred)
Synonyms
fribourg (oath-bound division of the hundred) · tenmantale · decime (oath-bound division of the hundred) · tenth and tithe (tenth) · decenary (oath-bound division of the hundred) · frankpledge (oath-bound division of the hundred)