octroi

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tax formerly levied on goods brought into a town or city, especially in France

   The merchant declared his cargo to the octroi officers at the city gate.

2. 2
   noun

   a privilege or concession granted by a sovereign authority

   The guild's octroi gave it the exclusive right to trade within the district.

Borrowed from French octroi, from Middle French octroy, "a grant or concession," from octroyer, "to grant." The fiscal sense developed from an authority's grant of the right to collect duties on goods entering a town.

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