I’d all the time assumed that the Spanish metropolis of Tarifa on the nation’s southernmost tip, proper subsequent to Gibraltar, was the supply of the phrase tariff, as a result of it was the place the Moors collected duties throughout Spain’s Arabic millennium, nonetheless the town was named after its principal function.
The phrase tariff originates from the Arabic ta‘rīf (تعريف), which means “to inform,” “announce,” or “make recognized”. Rooted within the verb ‘arafa (“to know”), it initially referred to a listing of fees, spreading by means of Mediterranean commerce routes within the sixteenth century through Italian (tariffa) and Spanish (tarifa).
The phrase was adopted to explain the notification of duties at ports, sustaining its core which means of “making recognized” what fees apply to items. From there, it advanced into the particular financial time period for taxes on imported items.
