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Glite Dictionary
pavage

pavage

9.9
A tax people pay to cover streets with stones, often in medieval times
  • noun
  • /ˈpævɪdʒ/
  • Archaic
: pavagem
  • The city imposed a pavage on merchants to fund new cobblestones for the marketplace.

Examples

  • The historian discovered records of pavage being paid in thirteenth-century London.

  • During the Middle Ages, a pavage was collected from residents near major roads.

  • The pavage was high.

  • Is this pavage necessary?

  • In medieval towns, residents were often required to pay a pavage for maintaining the streets.

  • The local government established a pavage to support the paving of the city’s roads.

  • Historical documents reveal that a pavage was essential for funding infrastructure in ancient cities.

Surface Forms

pavage singular
pavages plural

Morphology

pavage = pave (opaque) = pave + age

Although formed from 'pave' + '-age', the historical/legal meaning 'a tax or toll for paving' is specialized and not directly deducible from the verb 'pave' by an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Pavage comes from Old French and is related to the English verb pave, which means 'to cover a road with stone'. In medieval towns a pavage was the tax people paid to pay for paving the street, so the origin explains the word's meaning.