Talk:tariff

Etymology

I think the Italian word reflects تَعْرِفَة (taʿrifa(t), “tariff”) and the English word may reflect تَعَارِف (taʿārif), which is the plural of تَعْرِيفَة (taʿrīfa(t)), itself a less common synonym of تَعْرِفَة (taʿrifa(t)). --Z 18:16, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

According to my bestest and newest source on English etymology—Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 6th Edition, 2007—English tariff is from French tarif from Italian tariffa from Turkish tarife from Arabic ta´rifa. So you are right about the Italian but I do not believe English directly borrowed Arabic تَعَارِف (taʿārif). --Vahag (talk) 20:29, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

It is certainly not a direct borrowing, I just thought there may words reflecting taʿārif in languages between English and Arabic which beside English tariff reflect taʿārif. --Z 20:45, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

This may be useful, from Le Robert historique de la langue française, s.v. tarif

TARIF est la réfection, d'après les noms masculins en -if (1641), de l'ancienne forme féminine tariffe (1572, d'après Bloch et Wartburg), tarife (1604) elle-même empruntée, par l'intermédiaire de l'italien tariffa (XVIe s.), à l'arabe ta῾rīfa « notification », lors du commerce avec le Levant. Le mot arabe est passé aussi en catalan (XVIe s.), en espagnol et en portugais (XVIIe s.) sous la forme tarifa.

The ending must have been dropped in French. --Vahag (talk) 20:59, 31 March 2014 (UTC)