E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Tariff.
A list in alphabetical order of the duties, drawbacks, bounties, etc., charged or allowed on exports and imports. The word is derived from Tari’fa, a seaport of Spain about twenty miles from Gibraltar, where the Moors, during the supremacy in Spain, levied contributions according to a certain scale on vessels entering the Mediterranean Sea. (French, tarif; Spanish, tarifa.)
