emolument

Pronounced: ih-MOLL-yuh-muhnt, noun

Notes: This is a word I’ve run across in reading, but never looked up, so I wasn’t sure what it meant

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Yesterday’s word

The word tare means “a deduction from the gross weight of a substance made in allowance for the weight of the container; also, the weight of the container

First usage

This word goes back to the late 1400s

Background / Comments

I have seen kitchen scales that have a “tare” setting; I’ve always called this function a “zero” setting (since when you press the button, the weight goes to zero). The origination of the word has traveled… It came to English from Middle French, and to Middle French from the Old Italian word tara. The Old Italian word came from the Arabic word tarha (that which is removed). One definition of net weight is “weight excluding all tare”. Note that the word tare for the plant (mentioned in the Bible) is a completely different word with a different origin.