fiscal, a. and n.
(ˈfɪskəl)
Also 6 fyscall, 6–7 fiscall, (7 phiscall).
[a. Fr. fiscal, Sp. fiscal, It. fiscale, ad. late L. fiscālis, f. fiscus fisc.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or pertaining to the fisc or treasury of a state or prince; pertaining to the public revenue.
| 1563 Foxe Martyrs 333 (1632) I. 475/2 Which excludeth all right both fiscall and Ecclesiasticall. a 1618 Raleigh Cab. Council xix. (1658) 50 It behoveth the Prince to have a vigilant eye on..such fiscal Ministers. 1652 Howell Revol. Naples ii. 49 That he should send a Trumpet for the Fiscal Proctor. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 281 We proceed now to examine the king's fiscal prerogatives, or such as regard his revenue. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) II. xvi. 113 Alonso de Quintanilla..a fiscal officer of the crown. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. iv. iii. (1876) 549 The last remnant of Protection has been banished from our fiscal system. |
b. fiscal lands (transl. of L. terræ fiscales): in Frankish history, lands belonging to the king.
| In some mod. Dicts. |
c. fiscal agent, ‘a bank or trust company acting as the financial representative of a corporation or service organization’ (Webster 1961); also fig.
| 1841 in X. D. MacLeod Biogr. F. Wood (1856) 75 For forty years this Government has tried a national bank as its fiscal agent. 1856 Househ. Words 1 Mar. 153/1 There are..several buffets in Paris where you can be supplied with the cool and cunning drink known..as a Fiscal Agent. 1877 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 4) 357 The various compounds or mixtures of spirituous liquors and wines served in the United States... Fiscal Agent. 1931 Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 5 Sept. 534/2 Inquiries concerning the heavy fall in the securities of this group have led to the publication of a statement by the British fiscal agents. |
2. Of or pertaining to financial matters in general. fiscal year: a financial year: see financial a. 1. (Chiefly U.S.)
| 1865 H. Phillips Amer. Paper Curr. II. 44 The estimates for the fiscal year were only calculated to the tenth of June. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 99 The above figures represent the condition of the company at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30. 1880 E. Kirke Garfield 42 The work of the past fiscal year. |
B. n.
† 1. = fisc 1 b.
| 1590 Lambarde Compos. for Alienations in Bacon's Wks. (1740) III. 549 War..as it is entertained by diet, so can it not be long maintained by the ordinary fiscal and receipt. |
2. As the title of an official, in various connexions. † a. A minister or official of the treasury; a treasurer. Obs.
| 1652 Howell Revol. Naples ii. 50 The Captain propos'd to the Fiscal, That..a Tax should be impos'd upon all the Nobles. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 60 To those onely his Fiscal or Treasurer yearly giving out above forty millions of Crowns. 1676 W. Hubbard Happiness of People 26 Inferiour Officers, such as are Fiscalls and Treasurers. |
b. In Italy, Spain, Spanish colonies, etc., the title given to legal officials of various ranks, having the function of public prosecutors; under the Holy Roman Empire, the highest law officer of the crown.
| 1539 T. Pery in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. II. 147 Myne acwzacyon presentyde by the fyscall. 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 103 That suite, which in Spaine is prosecuted by the kings atturney, or fiscall. 1757 Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. (1758) 15/1 The King of Prussia was condemned for contumacy and the Fiscal had orders to notify to him that he was put under the ban of the Empire. 1779 H. Swinburne Trav. Spain xlii. 379 Don Pedro Rodriguez Campomanés, fiscal of the council of Castille. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. I. 199 The emperor caused the plenipotentiaries of the city to be cited before the fiscal of the empire. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 133 Exactly so have I..Your Fiscal, made me cognizant of facts. |
c. In Holland and Dutch colonies: A magistrate whose duty it is to take cognizance of offences against the revenue.
| 1653 Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) II. 18 The children's late insurrection in this town for having their trumpet taken from them by the Fiscal. 1700 S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 114, I never saw him more; without doubt he run away for fear the Fiscael should call him to an account for the death of my Companion. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1241 They waited on the governor, the lieutenant-governor or the fiscal. 1796 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XXI. 514 Peter Paulus, a man of forty years of age, originally Fiscal of the Admiralty. 1842 J. W. Orderson Creol. viii. 83 The Fiscal..consigned him to the penal gang. |
d. Sc. Short for procurator fiscal.
| 1681 in Lond. Gaz. No. 1649/2 All Sheriffs..Officers of the Mint, Commissars and..their Clerks and Fiscals. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, ‘Is it only you?’..answered the fiscal. 1885 C. Gibbon Hard Knot I. xvii. 237 The eyes of the Sheriff and the Fiscal were turned to Sarah. |
3. The name given in Cape Colony to a shrike (Lanius collaris). Also, fiscal-bird.
| 1801 J. Barrow Trav. S. Afr. I. i. 29 Turtle doves, a thrush called the Sprew, and the fiscal bird, the Lanius Collaris, frequent the gardens near the town. 1822 Latham Hist. Birds II. 23 The Canary-Biter, or Fiscal-bird..the tail feathers in the cinereous species are twice as broad as in the Fiscal. 1884 Sharpe Layard's Birds S. Africa 374 Fiskal Shrike. |
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Add: [A.] [2.] b. Special collocations. fiscal drag, the deflationary effect upon economic growth caused by the tendency of tax revenue to increase faster than the inflation rate when tax allowances remain fixed.
| 1964 N.Y. Times 23 June 21/1 Walter W. Heller, the council chief, foresaw a future need to ward off ‘*fiscal drag’—meaning a large budget surplus—to keep the expansion of the economy going. 1985 Austral. Business 4 Sept. 14/1 The government's modest increase in projected outlays will be more than offset by fiscal drag. |
fiscal engineering N. Amer., the management of large amounts of money so as to take maximum advantage of tax exemptions, credit arrangements, etc.; also fiscal engineer.
| 1977 Washington Post 3 Dec. b10/2 He first went to Brazil in 1929 as a *fiscal engineer for a subsidiary of the Electric Bond and Share Co. of New York. 1982 Maclean's Mag. 27 Sept. 40/3 The famous ‘fiscal engineering’, which has allowed Dome to flourish without paying out any significant dividends or taxes, will almost certainly save the energy empire one more time. 1985 Washington Post 29 Mar. c3/1 The fees and commissions may be only a small percentage of the total handled but still add up to huge rewards for these fiscal engineers. |
[B.] 4. Philately. A revenue stamp; postal fiscal, one authorized for use as a postage stamp.
| 1869 Philatelist 1 June 65/1 Emission of newspaper fiscals described in the January number. 1912 Gloss. Philatelic Terms (Philatelic Congr. Gt. Brit.) 19 Postal fiscals, stamps that were originally issued as fiscals and afterwards permitted, provisionally or permanently, to be employed as postage stamps. 1940 A. F. Harlow Paper Chase xiv. 288 Our stamped paper of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, our first fiscals. 1962 D. M. Patrick Internat. Guide Stamps & Stamp Collecting i. 14 When revenue stamps have been authorized for postage, they are called postal fiscals. 1984 J. Novacek Guide Stamp Collecting 74 Fiscals..were issued for the payment of non-postal services like sealing letters, filling in forms or legibly addressing envelopes. |
5. = fiscal year, sense A. 2 a above (with following numeral indicating the year in which the fiscal period ends). orig. and chiefly U.S.
| 1952 Economist 26 Jan. 211/1 The fiscal year 1952–53..begins next July (and..is known in American official parlance simply as fiscal 1953). 1966 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 5 Dec. 23/1 NASA planners now envision a budget request in Fiscal 1968 of about $10 million, with perhaps $15 million in Fiscal 1969. 1976 N.Z. Financial Times 10 Dec. 63/1 For fiscal 1977, Jimmy Carter is locked into an economic scenario. 1982 Times 2 Sept. 4/4 In fiscal 1981 the Navy paid $24.1m each for the F14. 1989 New Scientist 14 Jan. 28/1 The budget for fiscal 1990, starting next October, would exceed $1.15 trillion. |