poor rates
- noun
- Archaic
:
impuestos para los pobres
- The local government had to raise poor rates to ensure adequate support for those in need.
Examples
-
When a master guaranteed a job and wage to his journeyman, he was keeping a family off the poor rates and preserving the social fabric.
Academic text (1993) -
Those households in the community dependent on poor rates or otherwise considered to be too poor to be taxed could try to obtain a certificate from the local overseer of the poor or the churchwarden, which in turn served as proof for the tax collectors and led to their being "discharged by certificate." 12
Academic text (1995) -
After the reforms, many families relied less on poor rates and found stable employment.
-
Historically, poor rates were essential in funding social services for the less fortunate.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a local tax levied for the support of the poor' is directly built from 'poor' (the economically disadvantaged) + 'rates' (taxes/charges); the compound signals rates for/about the poor. This noun–noun relational pattern is common and compositional, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
The noun poor rates comes from old local taxes set to help people with no money. Local areas charged a rate, a kind of 'tax', to raise money for the poor, so the phrase literally named that tax and now means 'a local tax to support poor people'.
