α. Middle English rip-selwere, Middle English rip-sulwer.
β. Middle English repe-silver, Middle English rep-seluer, Middle English rep-selver, 1800s– reap-silver.
reap-silvern.
/ˈriːpˌsɪlvə/, U.S. /ˈripˌsɪlvər/ Now historical.
A sum paid by a tenant to a lord in lieu of services at harvest time.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > payment or service to feudal superior > [noun] > payment in lieu of service > others
sharn-penny1200
reap-silver1299
salt-silver1363
shepherd silvera1377
waking-silver1390
carriagec1400
plough-silver1423
cuddy15..
reap-penny1843
1299 in W. D. Macray Notes Munim. St. Mary Magdalen Coll. Oxf. (1882) 145 (MED) Ripsulwer.
a1300 (c1200) Chron. Jocelin of Brakelond 99 Solebant homines de singulis domibus dare celerario unum denarium in principio Augusti, ad metendum segetes nostras, qui census dicebatur repseluer.
1303 in R. Stewart-Brown Accts. Chamberlains Chester (1910) 20 (MED) [Rent, in Welsh called] Arienmedy, [in English] Repesilver [from the Prince's bond tenants, 11 s. 8 d.].
a1400 in N. Neilson Customary Rents (1910) 55 (note) (MED) Repselver.
1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present ii. x. 123 The Lakenheath eels cease to breed squabbles between human beings; the penny of reap-silver to explode into the streets of the Female Chartism of St. Edmundsbury.
1929 F. M. Powicke in Cambr. Med. Hist. VI. vii. 229 The definition of the competence in jurisdiction of the monastic cellarer and the borough reeve, the wrangles about reapsilver and other dues.
1938 G. G. Coulton Medieval Panorama xxiv. 282 They paid yearly ‘reap-silver’ as a commutation for the harvest work to which they had formerly been bound.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1299