What does tollage mean?
Tollage is an uncommon word for a toll, tax, levy, or duty, particularly a charge associated with crossing a road, bridge, or other public route. In older legal and administrative contexts, it could also mean the right to collect such a charge, as when a charter granted an abbey or local authority permission to take tollage from travellers. The word is now chiefly encountered in historical documents, legal language, and descriptions of former transport systems. Its decline reflects the wider adoption of the shorter and more familiar toll, which can denote either the amount payable or the right to impose the charge. Tollage nevertheless remains useful when discussing the institutional or legal side of such payments, rather than simply the fee paid at a bridge or turnpike. Its vocabulary relatives—tollgate, tollhouse, tollbar, and tollway—preserve the same older vocabulary of roads, barriers, and authorized charges.
nounA toll, tax, levy, or duty, especially a charge for passage over a road, bridge, or other public route. The word can also refer to the right to collect such a charge.
- A toll, tax, levy, or duty, especially one charged for passage over a road, bridge, or other public route.
- The right to collect a toll or levy.
"The charter granted the abbey the right to collect tollage from travellers crossing the bridge."
"The charter granted the abbey the right to collect tollage from travellers crossing the bridge."
"Customs officers disputed the tollage charged on wagons entering the town."
Tollage is normally used as a mass noun, but the plural tollages can refer to separate charges, duties, or instances of tollage.
"The account records several tollages charged to merchants using the road."
Before “toll” became the everyday word for a road fee, there was also “tollage”: the tax, duty, or right to collect it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does tollage come from?
Tollage was formed in Middle English from toll and the suffix -age. Its early sense covered a toll, tribute, tax, or duty, and in legal settings it could also denote the right to collect the charge. Related English forms include tollgate, tollhouse, tollbar, and tollway, all of which preserve the same root associated with levies for passage.
How tollage is actually used
Tollage is uncommon in contemporary general English and chiefly survives in historical, legal, and antiquarian contexts. In modern usage, toll is normally preferred for a charge made for passage, while tax or duty is preferred for a governmental levy.
Easily confused with tollage
Tollage is the older, chiefly legal term for the duty or right to impose a toll, while toll is the usual modern word for the amount charged for passage.