impost

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpəʊst/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpoʊst/
• Rhymes: -əʊst

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

impost (plural imposts)

1. (chiefly historical) A tax, tariff or duty that is imposed, especially on merchandise.
   • 1667 (revival performance), John Dryden, “Epilogue to the Wild Gallant, as It vvas First Acted”, in The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. […], In the Savoy [London]: […] T[homas] Newcomb for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1669:

     ’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.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 24, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], OCLC 906152507, book II (The Golden Thread), page 162:

     […] before the sequestration of emigrant property, I had remitted the imposts they had ceased to pay;

   • 1941, Melville J. Herskovits, The Myth of the Negro Past, New York: Harper, Chapter 3, p. 68,

     The Ashanti traded with the tribes to the north and with coastal folk to the south, and caravans going in either direction were liable for imposts according to the nature of the goods they carried.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 56:

     New universal direct taxes had to be introduced […] , while the burden of indirect taxes was also made heavier, with new imposts being levied on an ensemble of items ranging from playing cards to wigs.

2. (horse racing, slang) The weight that must be carried by a horse in a race, the handicap.

• imposter, impostor, impose

From Italian imposta, from Latin imposta.

impost (plural imposts)

1. (architecture) The top part of a column, pillar, pier, wall, etc. that supports an arch.
   • 1798, William Gilpin, Observations on the Western Parts of England, London: T. Cadell jun. and W. Davies, Section 7, p. 79,

     The outer circle [of Stonehenge] has been formed by a combination of two uprights and an impost; yet each combination of these three stones is detached, and without any connection with the rest, except that of coinciding in the form of a circle.

Attested 1905, borrowed either from French impôt,[1] or directly from Latin impositus.[2]

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impost m (plural imposts or impostos)

1. tax