gabelle
(gaˈbɛl)
Also 5–8 gabel(l, 6 gable.
[a. F. gabelle, ad. med.L. gabella, a deriv. from gablum, gabulum, a tax, impost, a word of Teut. origin; see gavel. Cf. Pr. and Sp. gabela, It. gabella. From the 16th cent. it is rarely used by English writers except as a foreign word, referring esp. to France and Italy.]
A tax; spec. the salt-tax imposed in France before the Revolution.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxxiii. 81 Other counceylours of the kynge..haue for to sene in special to gouernaunce of his propre goodes..gabelles and customes. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. x. (1885) 131 For wych cause the gabell off the salt, and the quaterimes of the wynes were graunted to the kynge by the iij estates off Fraunce. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clv. 187 The thre estates ordenid..that the gabell of salt shulde ron through the realme. 1631 Massinger Emperor East i. ii, No man should dare To bring a salad from his country garden Without the paying gabel. c 1645 Howell Lett. ii. lxiv. (1650) II. 100 England..having neither the Gabells of Italy, the Tallies of France, or the Accise of Holland laid upon them. 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 83 Like Massanello freeing Naples From Gabells put on roots and apples. 1721 Strype Eccl. Mem. II. ii. xx. 404 There being already many new imposts and gabels, beside the ordinary excise. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 34 In France..on account of the heavy gabel or excise..no man dares to purify salt for his own table. 1794 J. Gifford Louis XVI, 185 This was no less than the total abolition of the Gabelles throughout France. 1835 Lytton Rienzi x. vii, A gabelle was put upon wine and salt. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. ix. 156 With Cambridge the levy of this gabelle is regular. |
| fig. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. Ad §15. 137 The tribute which he demands are..Faith, Hope, and Charity; no other gabels but the duties of a holy spirit. |
b. attrib. as
gabelle-house,
gabelle-man,
gabelle-pence.
| 1650 Howell Giraffi's Rev. Naples i. 15 Quarters of the City, where all the *Gabell houses were. |
| 1837 Carlyle Misc. (1857) IV. 76 He flung *gabellemen and excisemen into the river Durance..when their claims were not clear. |
| 1884 Athenæum 16 Aug. 209/2 Simon de Montfort's charter for the remission of *gable-pence and bridge-silver to the burgesses of Leicester. |
Hence
ˈgabelled ppl. a., liable to a gabelle or tax.
| 1650 Howell Giraffi's Rev. Naples i. 10 They wold buy no gabell'd fruit. |