Moulture

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The share of grain that a miller keeps as payment for grinding it into flour or meal
2. An archaic payment in kind taken by a mill owner from the corn brought in to be ground
3. The toll of grain withheld by a miller as his fee for milling a customer's harvest

Etymology: In medieval Scotland and northern England, millers were usually paid in grain rather than coin. The fee, often a sixteenth of the grain ground, was called "multure," and it came from Old French "moulture," which descends from Latin "molitura," meaning "grinding," from "molere," "to grind." The "moulture" spelling is a variant of the same word and is now obsolete. The payment was tied to a legal obligation. Tenants were often bound by "thirlage," which required them to grind their corn only at the lord's mill and pay the miller's multure there. Because the miller's share was fixed by custom, the word came to name both the toll and the right to collect it.

Synonyms: multure