The system of dikes (embankments) in a region, or a tax or fee paid for maintaining dikes and dams.
From 'dike' (a causeway or embankment) plus '-age' (a suffix meaning collection, condition, or payment). 'Dike' comes from Middle Dutch 'dijk' and Old Norse 'díki,' referring to embankments used in low-lying areas of northern Europe to manage water.
In medieval Netherlands and England, 'dykage' was literally a tax you paid to maintain the infrastructure keeping your land from flooding—essentially an early engineering fee! This shows how English borrowed both Dutch vocabulary and their ingenious water-management systems.
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