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The term tariff has come a long way before entering the English language. Its derives from Arabic ta'rifa, Italian tariffa and ultimately from French tarif:

  • From French tarif, from Italian tariffa..... from Arabic تَعْرِفَة‎ (taʿrifa).

(Wiktionary)

Has the presence of the double final f something to do with pronunciation given that the French original spelling consists of only one single f?

Glorfindel
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user 66974
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  • “f” is a letter that is often doubled word-finally in English, like “s” and “l”. – herisson Mar 14 '18 at 15:41
  • That entry is wrong. tariff is not a verb. Sometimes I really dislike Wikipedia. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 15:56
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    To 'derive ultimately from' is a fixed expression meaning 'originate with', hence it is incorrect to put X = French in 'it derives ultimately from X'. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 14 '18 at 16:00
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    @Lambie But it IS a verb. It's more commonly a noun, though. Also, that's Wiktionary, not Wikipedia... – psosuna Mar 14 '18 at 18:29
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    Lots of words spelled with double f at the end: staff, sheriff, whiff, toff, riff, miff, off, cliff.... – Mari-Lou A Mar 14 '18 at 18:44
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    @Lambie - Your comment is misleading. Collins and American Heritage also recognize tariff as a verb, as do four of the five dictionaries at Wordnik. The OED lists it as a verb as well, with this sentence from 1870 as an example usage: If the siege lasts long enough, dogs, rats, and cats will be tariffed. – J.R. Mar 14 '18 at 21:20
  • @J.R. Did it every occur to you that this forum says "usage". In all my born days (a lot believe me), I have never ever heard the word tariff used as a verb. Citing the OED with its 1870 example is not germane to contemporary usage. Of course, if I saw it in the OED sentence in a book, I would "get" it but what is misleading is to cite dictionaries as if the term were "monnaie courante", as the French say. Tarif comes from Arabic. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 21:46
  • tariffa s. f. [dall’arabo ta῾rīfa, propr. «notificazione, informazione»]. –http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/tariffa: from the Arabic tarifa, notification, information. I'll have to tell my tax lady that my jobs are all tariffed. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 21:47
  • @Lambie - what's the point of Treccani link? – user 66974 Mar 14 '18 at 21:52
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    @Lambie - Your comment says nothing about usage. It claimed the entry was "wrong" because "tariff is not a verb." (Had your comment merely said, "Tariff may be listed as a verb, but it's far more often used as a noun," I would have quietly agreed, and perhaps even upvoted the clarifying remark. Instead, you muddied the waters with misinformation.) The OED reference was only meant to show how long the word has been used as a verb; if you prefer a more contemporary example, there's, "He cannot tariff outgoing goods heavily, either." (Scion of Cyador, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Macmillan, 2001) – J.R. Mar 14 '18 at 22:07
  • @user2922582 To show that it comes from Arabic. It also exists in all the Romance languages. The Spanish Real Academia also says: Del ár. hisp. ta‘rífa, y este del ár. clás. ta‘rīfah, de ta‘rīf 'definición'. So, tarifa from Andalusi Arabic and tarifah from classical Arabic. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 22:08
  • It is not a verb in contemporary English. Scion of Cyador is a novel. It is not usual usage. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 22:09
  • @Lambie - that is comes from Arabic “ta’rifa” was stated also in my question, though. – user 66974 Mar 14 '18 at 22:10
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff is better. That said, I cannot answer the question of why it takes a double ff. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 22:11
  • @Lambie - as for the double ff, suggestions here range from imitation of Italian tariffa to imitation of other common ff ending English terms such as staff, whiff, sheriff etc. – user 66974 Mar 14 '18 at 22:14

1 Answers1

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The OED netry for tariff, noun, gives the etymology as from the Italian originally and this agrees with its first known usage which also relates to the Italian spelling.

Etymology

Etymology: < Italian tariffa ‘arithmetike or casting of accounts’ (Florio), ‘a book of rates for duties’ (Baretti), = Spanish tarifa, Portuguese tarifa, < Arabic taʿrīf notification, explanation, definition, article, < ʿarafa in 1st conj. to notify, make known. So French tarif. The word came into general use as a technical term (sense 2), and this character it long retained in English use, being hardly found, except as applied to the Customs ‘tariff’; its more general application (sense 3), found earlier on the Continent and in U.S., has become more common in Great Britain only since c1890.

Usage

†1. An arithmetical table or statement; a table of multiplication, a ready reckoner, or the like. 1591 W. Garrard & R. Hitchcock Arte of Warre 224 So that helping your memorie with certain Tablei or Tariffas made of purpose to know the numbers of the souldiers that are to enter into ranke.

Nigel J
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  • The entry in the OED appears to support that in both etymology and original usage, yes. – Nigel J Mar 14 '18 at 15:46
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    Yes, that's right. And percent is also from Italian: per cento. Import tariffs, a specific tax on importing goods into a country. Funnily enough, there's an entire Euro-speak thing with telephone rates, where the word tariffs is misused. Can't be bothered to go into here. – Lambie Mar 14 '18 at 15:59
  • @user2922582 That would be a moderator decision, not mine. – Nigel J Mar 14 '18 at 16:29
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    Based on sourced statements in the Wikipedia article and at https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/119065/1/TEM1994-3_289-304p.pdf, double-entry bookkeeping emerged from Italy at the end of the 15th century, which would be after the grand wave of borrowing from French into English had ended. And, as Nigel J showed, the OED has "tariffa" first attested in 1591, after the French heyday. So it wouldn't surprise me if some accounting terms came directly from Italian instead of through post-1066 French. – Green Grasso Holm Mar 14 '18 at 18:26