A traditional community tax or payment system, particularly in Ottoman and Indian administrative contexts, where inhabitants contributed collectively to local governance.
From Ottoman Turkish 'adet' or Persian 'ādat' meaning custom or usage; the term evolved through colonial administrative language to describe formal taxation systems in South Asian regions during the 19th-20th centuries.
This word captures how empires borrowed and formalized local customs into bureaucratic systems—the word itself traveled from Turkish through British colonial administrators' reports, showing how language maps power structures onto daily life.
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