cliffage

English

Etymology

cliff +‎ -age

Noun

cliffage

1. (historical, South Wales) The right to quarry limestone from the cliffs of the Gower, or the payment charged for this right.
   • 1977, David Rees, A Gower Anthology, page 55:

     The quarrymen received eighteen pence per ton , which covered drilling, blasting and transporting the stone to theb foreshore. Of this sum, a tithe was payable to the lord of the manor as cliffage. A bailiff had been appointed in each manor since the 17th century to collect cliffage, keelage, and customs charges on exported animals. Each ship that berthed on the foreshore was charged four pence Keelage […]

   • 1934, Archaeologia Cambrensis, page 89, page 326:

     In 1688, the Lord of the manors of Oxwich, Port Eynon, Pilton, and Nicholaston granted tunnage, cliffage, and wharfage for the cutting, transport, and export of the limestones of the said parishes and manors on the annual rental of one shilling of current English money.

   • 2015, Andrew Davies, Walking on the Gower: 30 walks exploring the AONB peninsula in South Wales, Cicerone Press Limited, →ISBN:

     Rights of 'cliffage' were awarded to farming tenants who could quarry the limestone from the slopes of Pwlldu Head, which was then shipped across the water to Devon where it was burned to make agricultural lime. The quarried stone was ...

2. (uncommon) Cliffs, collectively.
   • 1898, Albert Lee, Four for a Fortune; a Tale, page 154:

     To the north rose the dull cliffage of Newfoundland, bleak and gray-green - yet a streak of companionship in this vast loneliness. As we neared the summit of La Grande Vigie we obtained a good view of the other islands of the group ...

   • 2018, Travis Jeppesen, See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea, Hachette Books, →ISBN:

     It's supposed to look particularly impressive in winter, when the water freezes, the pure white of the snow glistening in contrast to the burnt umber of the surrounding cliffage. We talk about fears rooted in our childhoods.