When angry taxpayers liken the Internal Revenue Service to “vultures,” they’re act
When angry taxpayers liken the Internal Revenue Service to “vultures,” they’re actually making a deep linguistic connection.During the Middle Ages, English officials would charge a tax on non-resident merchants who sold goods on the streets. This duty was known as a scavage (after a Middle French word meaning “to inspect” the tax-collectors were scavagers.Over time, those scavagers expanded their duties to cleaning the streets of dirt and debris. Scavager became scavenger.image: Marinus Van Reymerswaele, The Tax Collectors, c. 1540s -- source link
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