tallyman

«tallyman» in Mova's school dictionary: A tallyman was a person who kept a tally, or count, of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a tallyman, tallymen)

meaning for a pupil

1) (history) A tallyman was a person who kept a tally, or count, of goods, such as bananas being loaded onto a ship, or votes. tree →

2) (UK, old-fashioned) A tallyman was a door-to-door salesman who sold goods and collected the money in small weekly payments. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history and songs, the tallyman counted bunches of bananas being loaded in Jamaica, as in the famous «Banana Boat Song» («Come, Mister Tally Man, tally me banana»). In old UK stories about poor families, the tallyman came on Fridays to collect payments. Today, people more often say «counter» or «collector». Phrases: «the tallyman came round».

examples

• The tallyman counted every bunch of bananas. tree →
• «Come, Mister Tally Man, tally me banana», goes the old song. tree →
• In the 1930s, the tallyman called at Nan's house every Friday. tree →
• The tallyman wrote the numbers in his book. tree →
• Families paid the tallyman a little each week for their new coats. tree →
• At the dock, the tallyman checked each sack. tree →

note

Old-fashioned. Plural «tallymen». A «tally» is a running count, often kept with marks in groups of five (four lines and one across), which helps in maths with counting data.

In the corpora

• Tallymen are party helpers who watch the Irish count and keep their own tally to guess the result early.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «tallyman» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.