† ˈthistle-tack Obs. exc. Hist.
[Origin obscure: connexion with thistle n. is doubtful; the second element is tack n.2]
The name in some localities of a due levied upon the owners of pigs by the lord of the manor, as a charge for pannage. Cf. quot. 1523 for tack-swine, s.v. tack n.2 6.
| 1303–5 York Vac. Roll (Ministers Accts. 1144/1, P.R.O.), Et de xs. vijd. de operibus custumariorum..cum pannagio quod dicitur thistiltak. 1327 Inquis. Death Thomas Earl Lancaster, I.P.M. Edw. III, File 6 (m. 3), P.R.O., (Yorks., Soureby), Et de quadam consuetudine porcorum ibidem vocata Thistletack ad terminum Sancti Andree xviij d. 1377 Halymote of Halton, etc. (Court Rolls 50 Edw. III, Bundle 2. No. 27), Et de iij s collectis de pannagio vocato Thistletak pro porcis diversorum tenencium domini apud Runkorn. 1419 Excheq. Accts. 7 Hen. V, Bundle 131. No. 14 (Forest of Galtres, Yorks.) Sed de Thistiltak nichil quia nullum tale proficuum accidit hoc anno. |
¶ The following accounts of the term are given by 17th c. writers:
| 1677 R. Thoroton Nottinghamshire 308/1 If any Native or Cottager [at Fiskerton, Nottinghamshire] having a Swine above a year old, should kill him, he was to give the Lord 1{supd}. and it was called Thisteltak. 1691 Blount's Law Dict. (ed. 2), Thistle-take,..a Custom in the honor of Halton,..That if in driving Beasts over the Common, the Driver permits them to graze or take but a Thistle, he shall pay a half-peny a Beast to the Lord of the Fee. 1906 N. J. Hone Manor & Manor. Recds. 112 ‘Thistle-take’ was claimed by the lords [of Manors] in Lancashire and Yorkshire, as an acknowledgment of the hasty crop taken by droves of beasts passing over a common, and similar payments. |
(The statement in quot. 1691 (whence in 1906) was evidently ‘popular etymology’.)