Fiscal

a. and sb. Also 6 fyscall, 6–7 fiscall, (7 phiscall). [a. Fr. fiscal, Sp. fiscal, It. fiscale, ad. late L. fiscālis, f. fiscus FISC.]

  A.  adj.

  1.  Of or pertaining to the fisc or treasury of a state or prince; pertaining to the public revenue.

1563.  Foxe, Martyrs, 333 (1632), I. 475/2. Which excludeth all right both fiscall and Ecclesiasticall.

a. 1618.  Raleigh, Cab. Council, xix. (1658), 50. It behoveth the Prince to have a vigilant eye on Informers, Promoters, and such fiscal Ministers, whose Cruelty and covetous Proceedings do oft-tentimes occasion great Hate.

1652.  Howell, Revol. Naples, II. 49. That he should send a Trumpet for the Fiscal Proctor.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. 281. We proceed now to examine the king’s fiscal prerogatives, or such as regard his revenue.

1838.  Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), II. xvi. 113. Alonso de Quintanilla … a fiscal officer of the crown of Aragon.

1863.  Fawcett, Pol. Econ., IV. iii. (1876), 549. The last remnant of Protection has been banished from our fiscal system.

  b.  Fiscal lands (transl. of L. terræ fiscales): in Frankish history, lands belonging to the king.

In some mod. Dicts.

  2.  Of or pertaining to financial matters in general. Fiscal year: a financial year: see FINANCIAL a. 1. (Chiefly U.S.)

1865.  H. Phillips, Amer. Paper Curr., II. 44. The estimates for the fiscal year, as has been already mentioned, were only calculated to the tenth of June: that time was rapidly expiring.

1872.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 99. The above figures represent the condition of the company at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870.

1880.  E. Kirke, Garfield, 42/2. The measure I have suggested would have enabled this Department to do the work of the past fiscal year with a corps of clerks one-third less in number than were found necessary.

  B.  sb.

  † 1.  = FISC 1 b.

1590.  Lambarde, Compos. for Alienations, in Bacon’s Wks. (1740), III. 549. War … as it is entertained by diet, so can it not be long maintained by the ordinary fiscal and receipt.

  2.  As the title of an official, in various connections.

  † a.  A minister or official of the treasury; a treasurer. Obs.

1652.  Howell, Revol. Naples, II. 50. The Captain propos’d to the Fiscal, That … a Tax should be impos’d upon all the Nobles.

1665.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 60. To those onely his Fiscal or Treasurer yearly giving out above forty millions of Crowns.

1676.  W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, 26. Concerning inferiour Officers, such as are Fiscalls & Treasurers, whose places (by reason of the profit they usually are attended with) are more liable to temptation & corruption, there is no matter of danger in their charge.

  b.  In Italy, Spain, Spanish colonies, etc., the title given to legal officials of various ranks, having the function of public prosecutors; under the Holy Roman Empire, the highest law officer of the crown.

1539.  T. Pery, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. II. 147. Myne acwzacyon presentyde by the fyscall.

1622.  R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 103. That suite, which in Spaine is prosecuted by the kings atturney, or fiscall.

1757.  Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg. (1758), 15/1. The King of Prussia was condemned for contumacy and the Fiscal had orders to notify to him that he was put under the ban of the Empire.

1779.  H. Swinburne, Trav. Spain, xlii. 379. Don Pedro Rodriguez Campomanés, fiscal of the council of Castille, is likewise a man of letters.

1845.  S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 199. The emperor caused the plenipotentiaries of the cities to be cited before the fiscal of the empire.

1868.  Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 133.

  c.  In Holland and Dutch colonies: A magistrate whose duty it is to take cognizance of offenses against the revenue.

1653.  Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 18. The children’s late insurrection in this town for having their trumpet taken from them by the Fiscal.

1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 114. I never saw him more; without doubt he run away for fear the Fiscael should call him to an account for the death of my Companion.

1773–84.  Cook, Voy. (1790), IV. 1241. They waited on the governor, the lieutenant-governor or the fiscal, and the commander of the troops, by whom they were received with the greatest civility.

1796.  W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXI. 514. Peter Paulus, a man of forty years of age, originally Fiscal of the Admiralty at the Maes, is the most remarkable.

1842.  Orderson, Creol., viii. 83. The Fiscal having consigned him to the penal gang for having made too free with property not his own.

  d.  Sc. Short for PROCURATOR FISCAL.

1681.  in Lond. Gaz., No. 1649/2. All Sheriffs … Officers of the Mint, Commissars and … their Clerks and Fiscals.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xviii. ‘Is it only you, and be d—d to you?’ answered the fiscal.

1885.  C. Gibbon, Hard Knot, I. xvii. 237. The eyes of the Sheriff and the Fiscal were turned to Sarah, who not stood with head bowed meekly.

  3.  The name given in Cape Colony to a shrike (Lanius collaris). Also, fiscal-bird.

1822.  Latham, Hist. Birds, II. 23. The Canary-Biter, or Fiscal Bird…. The tail feathers, also, in the cinereous species, are twice as broad as in the Fiscal.

1884.  Sharpe, Layard’s Birds S. Africa, 374. Fiskal Shrike. This Shrike is more abundant in the neighbourhood of Cape Town than in any other part of the colony that we have visited.