核心畫面

One way to hold this word: a harvest laid out in ten equal heaps, and one of those heaps set aside before anything else is touched. Every use of the word is a question about that one heap. Who moves it — the farmer, or the man who comes for it? Is it owed, or offered? And once the heap has been lifted out often enough, the church can drop out of the picture altogether and the word is left meaning just that: one part in ten, a small piece of the whole.

可以把這個字想成:一季的收成被分成十堆,其中一堆在任何東西被動用之前就先被撥到旁邊。這個字的每一種用法,問的都是那一更多收起可以把這個字想成:一季的收成被分成十堆,其中一堆在任何東西被動用之前就先被撥到旁邊。這個字的每一種用法,問的都是那一堆的事。是誰搬它——種田的人,還是上門來收的人?它是欠的,還是給的?而當這一堆被撥出來撥了夠久,教會甚至可以從畫面裡消失,只剩下那個數字:十份裡的一份,整體裡的一小塊。

From the word’s history

Middle English tithe, from Old English tēoþa, 'a tenth' — the word was a number before it was ever a payment.

中古英文 tithe,來自古英文 tēoþa,意思是「第十、十分之一」。這個字先是一個數字,後來才變成一筆錢的名字。

Wiktionary entry for tithe, etymology_text: 'From Middle English tithe, tythe, tethe, from Old English tēoþa, tēoða, teogoþa ... a proposed Proto-Germanic *tehunþô ("a tenth")' (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:670390133)

Two branches

交出去的那十分之一

這一組站在出錢的那一邊,看著那堆被撥出去的收成離開自己手上。三個意思的差別只在:被規定的,還是自己願意的;是一筆錢,還是一個動作。

noun · C1

In earlier times, a tax of one tenth of what land or animals produced, paid to the church because the law said so, and used to keep the clergy.

什一稅

只剩下數字本身

把教會從畫面裡拿掉,那一堆就只是十份裡的一份。這是字最早的意思,也是它在舊文學裡留下的樣子。

noun · C2

A tenth part of something, with no church involved. This use is old: you meet it in older books and poems, often after 'not', where 'not a tithe of' means nowhere near all of something.

十分之一