impost

noun

1. (historical)A tax, tariff or duty that is imposed, especially on merchandise.

   “’Tis a Land-tax, vvhich he’s too poor to pay; / You, therefore muſt ſome other Impoſt lay.”

   “1752, David Hume, Political Discourses, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, “Of Taxes,” p. 120, […] a duty upon commodities checks itself; and a prince will soon find, that an encrease of the impost is no encrease of his revenue.”

   “[…] before the sequestration of emigrant property, I had remitted the imposts they had ceased to pay;”

   “The Ashanti traded with the tribes to the north and with coastal folk to the south, and caravans going in either direction were liable for imposts according to the nature of the goods they carried.”

   “New universal direct taxes had to be introduced […], while the burden of indirect taxes was also made heavier, with new imposts being levied on an ensemble of items ranging from playing cards to wigs.”

2. (slang)The weight that must be carried by a horse in a race; the handicap.
3. The top part of a column, pillar, pier, wall, etc. that supports an arch.

   “The outer circle [of Stonehenge] has been formed by a combination of two uprights and an impost; yet each combination of these three stones is detached, and without any connection with the rest, except that of coinciding in the form of a circle.”