"tax paid, duty imposed, fee," Middle English tol, a general term for payment or tribute exacted by an authority, from Old English toll "impost, tribute, passage-money, rent," variant of toln, cognate with Old Norse tollr, Old Frisian tolen, Old High German zol, German Zoll. According to Watkins, etc., probably an early Germanic borrowing from Late Latin tolonium "custom house," classical Latin telonium "tollhouse," from Greek teloneion "tollhouse," from telones "tax-collector," from telos "duty, tax, expense, cost" (from suffixed form of PIE root *tele- "to lift, support, weigh;" see extol) For sense, compare finance. On another theory it is native Germanic and related to tell (v.) on the notion of "that which is counted."
In Middle English a legal term for the right to charge for certain imports, products, sales, passages, etc.; the specific meaning "charge for right of passage along a road" is from late 15c. On the old telephones a toll-call was one made outside the local area, for which there was a special charge. The figurative use of take its toll as "exact a cost" is by 1910.
Middle English bride-toll (12c.) was a fee paid to the lord upon the marriage outside the manor of one of his bondswomen (often accompanied in old documents by childwite, the fine for getting one with child).
As a verb, Middle English tollen "pay tolls; levy a toll."
