prisage

English

Etymology

From Old French prisage (“a praising, valuing, taxing”) (compare Latin prisagium (“prisage”)) or from French prise (“a taking, capture, prize”). See prize.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɪzɪd͡ʒ/

Noun

prisage (countable and uncountable, plural prisages)

1. (law, UK, obsolete) A right belonging to the crown of England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more: one before and one behind the mast.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     There is also another very ancient hereditary duty belonging to the crown, called the prisage, or butlerage of wines

2. (obsolete) The share of merchandise taken as lawful prize at sea which belongs to the king or admiral.

See also

• butlerage

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “prisage”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• gaspier, pig's ear