tax-exempt
Meaning
Not subject to taxation; free from tax.
Structure
Usage
Interest earned on these municipal bonds is completely tax-exempt.
The organization has tax-exempt status as a registered charity.
He made a tax-exempt donation to the university.
Etymology
The compound adjective "tax-exempt" is a modern legal and financial term built from two distinct Latinate roots. "Tax" originates from the Latin verb taxare, meaning to handle or assess, which evolved through French into the English term for a compulsory financial charge. "Exempt" comes from the Latin eximere, meaning to take out or remove, with its participle form signifying a state of being freed. The logical construction is perfectly transparent: something described as "tax-exempt" has been formally "taken out" from the category of items subject to financial assessment. This compound elegantly encapsulates the concept of legal exclusion from fiscal liability by directly combining the object of the obligation with the state of removal.
Analysis
- tax: From Latin taxare ("to appraise, handle, censure"), via Anglo-French taxer and Middle English taxen. Functions as the base noun specifying the object from which one is freed. - exempt: From Latin eximere ("to take out, remove"), composed of ex- ("out") + emere ("to take, buy"). The past participle exemptus entered English via Old French exempt. Functions as the adjective meaning "removed or freed from an obligation."