The system or practice of imprisonment, or a fee charged for keeping someone in jail.
From 'gaol' plus the suffix '-age,' which creates nouns denoting a process, condition, or collective action. This combines the prison term with the old practice of charging families for keeping prisoners incarcerated.
In medieval and early modern times, prisoners' families had to literally pay to keep them alive in gaol—'gaolage' fees sometimes drove families into poverty, creating a hidden punishment system beyond the bars.
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