Wharfages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Charges or fees assessed for the use of a wharf facility
2. the yielding of space at a dockage point to facilitate the loading and unloading of goods
3. the calculation of expenses related to the handling of vessels at a port terminal

Etymology: "Wharfages" is the plural of "wharfage," the fee a ship pays for using a wharf. The noun is a straightforward compound: "wharf" plus the suffix "-age," which in English forms nouns denoting a charge, collection, or place connected with an action or object, as in "postage" or "anchorage." The first half, "wharf," has a long history of its own. It descends from Old English "hweorfa" or a related form, and the Old English word denoted a bank or shore where ships could be moored, a sense it has kept ever since. In Middle English it appeared as "wharf," and the Middle English form "wharfage" was built on it by adding the suffix that came into English through Old French from Latin. Because the suffix attaches so readily to nouns for things and actions, English speakers could generate new terms like this one whenever a practical need arose. "Wharfage" was one such formation, and it stayed in use as a business term for the charge levied on goods and vessels at the quay.