Hist. [ad. med.L. fūmāgium, f. fūm-us smoke.] Hearth-money.
1755. in Johnson.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. vii. 323. As early as the conquest mention is made in domesday book of fumage or fuage, vulgarly called smoke farthings; which were paid by custom to the king for every chimney in the house.
1884. S. Dowell, Tax. in Eng. (1888), I. 10. A FUMAGE, or tax of smoke farthings, or hearth tax, a kind of tax usually to be found among the fiscal traditions of communities in remote times, ranges among those of the Anglo-Saxon period.