German

Noun

Taille f ‎(genitive Taille, plural Taillen)

1. waist, waistline

Derived terms

• Wespentaille

English

Noun

taille ‎(countable and uncountable, plural tailles)

1. (historical) A form of taxation levied on the land of peasants in pre-Revolutionary France.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 143:

     The main royal tax was the taille, a tax on landed wealth, distributed among the généralités and assessed and levied in a variety of ways, and it was supplemented by a range of other direct taxes [...].

2. (obsolete) A tally; an account scored on a piece of wood.
   • Chaucer

     Whether that he paid or took by taille.

3. (music, obsolete) The tenor voice or part.
4. (music, obsolete) The part for the tenor viol or viola.

Related terms

• tallage ‎(“a tax”)

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology

From French taille.

Noun

taille f, m ‎(plural tailles, diminutive tailletje n)

1. waistline

French

Etymology

From tailler ‎(“to cut”, verb). Compare Italian taglia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taj/

Noun

taille f ‎(plural tailles)

1. the act of cutting, pruning, trimming
2. size
3. waist
4. waistline
5. a direct tax levied during the Ancien Régime; tallage

Synonyms

• (cut): coupe
• (size): grandeur, gabarit

Derived terms

• taillable
• taille de guêpe

Related terms

• tailler

Old French

Etymology

Deverbal of taillier.

Noun

taille f ‎(oblique plural tailles, nominative singular taille, nominative plural tailles)

1. cut (act; instance of cutting)
2. cut; wound; incision (result of being cut)
3. cut (of clothing)
4. a count kept by carving notches into a stick
5. (by extension) a count; a tally
6. charge; levy; taxation; tax

Descendants

• English: tally (borrowed)
• French: taille
  • English: taille (borrowed)

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (taille, supplement)
• taille on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub