danegeld

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 13, 2008 is: danegeld • \DAYN-gheld\ • noun : often captitalized an annual tax believed to have been imposed originally to buy off Danish invaders in England or to maintain forces to oppose them but continued as a land tax Examples: Today's lecture will be on the Danegeld and taxation in the Middle Ages. Did you know? The subjects of King Ethelred II, who ruled England from 978-1016, didn't think much of the ruler the dubbed "the Unready." They suspected him of murdering his brother to gain the throne, so it isn't surprising that they didn't rally around him to defend the country against the Danish invaders who attempted to unseat him. Ethelred tried a payoff tax called the Danegeld as a last ditch effort to keep his kingdom intact. The "Dane" part of the name refers to the Danish invaders who received the money. The "geld" part comes from an Old English word meaning "payment" or "tribute." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.