Meaning and Origin
What does the name Tally mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
User Submitted Origins
- Originally, a piece of wood on which notches or scores were cut, as the marks of number; later, one of two books, sheets of paper, etc., on which corresponding accounts were kept.
- Hence, any account or score kept by notches or marks, whether on wood or paper, or in a book; especially, one kept in duplicate.
- One thing made to suit another; a match; a mate."They were framed the tallies for each other." [Dryden.]
- A notch, mark, or score made on or in a tally; as, to make or earn a tally in a game.
- A tally shop. See Tally shop, below.
Note: ☞ In purshasing and selling, it was once customary for traders to have two sticks, or one stick cleft into two parts, and to mark with a score or notch, on each, the number or quantity of goods delivered, -- the seller keeping one stick, and the purchaser the other. Before the use of writing, this, or something like it, was the only method of keeping accounts; and tallies were received as evidence in courts of justice. In the English exchequer were tallies of loans, one part being kept in the exchequer, the other being given to the creditor in lieu of an obligation for money lent to government.
Etymology: OE. taile taille, F. taille a cutting, cut tally, fr. tailler to cut, but influenced probably by taillé, p. p. of tailler. See Tailor, and cf. Tail a limitation, Taille Tallage
- To score with correspondent notches; hence, to make to correspond; to cause to fit or suit."They are not so well tallied to the present juncture." [Pope.]
- [Naut] To check off, as parcels of freight going inboard or outboard.
Etymology: Cf. F. tialler to cut. See Tally (n.)
- To be fitted; to suit; to correspond; to match."I found pieces of tiles that exactly tallied with the channel." [Addison.]"Your idea . . . tallies exactly with mine." [Walpole.]
- To make a tally; to score; as, to tally in a game.
Etymology: See Tall (a.)
- A score in baseball made by a runner touching all four bases safely ("their first tally came in the 3rd inning")
- The act of counting; reciting numbers in ascending order
- A bill for an amount due
- Determine the sum of
- Keep score, as in games
- Gain points in a game
- Be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics
- A male given name
- A female given name