poll tax
8
7.8
- noun
- /poʊl tæks/
:
impuesto de capitación
- Disadvantaged white people could vote, but African Americans in the South were disenfranchised by poll taxes and intimidation.
- pay the poll tax
- shift to a poll tax
When it came down to it, so many people made the poll tax unworkable that she had to recant and, and abandon it.
- When it came down to it, so many people made the poll tax unworkable that she had to recant and, and abandon it.
Examples
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It is important to note that the poll tax fell on Roman subjects, not Roman citizens.
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"I keep those poll tax receipts in my office," he says.
Academic text (2002) -
And justice today does not take the form of poll taxes and literacy tests.
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As a result, overall revenues fell as more men paid the cheaper poll tax.
Academic text (2006) -
You know, in the case of the poll tax campaign, there was the financial leverage of non payment or delayed payment.
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There are plenty of others, starting with the grand tradition of poll taxes and literacy tests.
Blog text (6) -
There is no poll tax, like you said, when the IDs are free.
Blog text (28) -
Yesterday, without consultation, the Prime Minister announced plans to impose a regressive Tory poll tax on millions of Scottish workers.
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Congress passed the law in reaction to blatant racial discrimination, such as poll taxes and literacy tests commonly used in the South.
Academic text (2008) -
In the 1980s, many citizens protested against the unfair poll tax imposed as a requirement to vote.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A charge people must pay to the government on income or property
Surface Forms
Morphology
While 'tax' is transparent, the sense of 'poll' needed here is the archaic 'head' or 'per person' meaning rather than the common B1 meaning 'survey' or 'opinion poll'. Because understanding the MWE requires that specific lexical sense (or cross-linguistic awareness of a 'head'/'per-capita' tax), it is not fully predictable from the common constituent meanings and so is only partially transparent to learners.
Etymology
Poll tax comes from poll, an old word for 'head', and tax, so it originally meant a charge for each person. Because it was the same fixed amount 'per head', it was often used as a fee people had to pay to 'vote', which could stop poorer people from voting.