A tax or payment demanded from a person or property, especially in Ottoman Empire regions; also spelled 'haraj'.
From Turkish 'haraç' or Arabic 'jizya', referring to a tax imposed on non-Muslim subjects. This term entered English through trade and diplomatic contact with Ottoman territories during the medieval and early modern periods.
The harrage was essentially a 'non-Muslim tax'—a real historical tax code that shaped Ottoman society for centuries. Words like this in English are linguistic fossils that remind us how trade and empires literally bring foreign vocabulary into our language.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.