What is "tally"

Tally \Tal"ly\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tallied; p. pr. & vb. n. Tallying.] [Cf. F. tialler to cut. See Tally, n.]

1. To score with correspondent notches; hence, to make to correspond; to cause to fit or suit.

   They are not so well tallied to the present juncture.
   --Pope.

2. (Naut.) To check off, as parcels of freight going inboard or outboard.
   --W. C. Russell.

   Tally on (Naut.), to dovetail together.

Tally \Tal"ly\, v. i.

1. To be fitted; to suit; to correspond; to match.

   I found pieces of tiles that exactly tallied with the channel.
   --Addison.

   Your idea . . . tallies exactly with mine.
   --Walpole.

2. To make a tally; to score; as, to tally in a game.

   Tally on (Naut.), to man a rope for hauling, the men standing in a line or tail.

Tally \Tal"ly\, adv. [See Tall, a.] Stoutly; with spirit. [Obs.]
--Beau. & Fl.

Tally \Tal"ly\, n.; pl. Tallies. [OE. taile, taille, F. taille a cutting, cut tally, fr. tailler to cut, but influenced probably by taill['e], p. p. of tailler. See Tailor, and cf. Tail a limitation, Taille, Tallage.]

1. Originally, a piece of wood on which notches or scores were cut, as the marks of number; later, one of two books, sheets of paper, etc., on which corresponding accounts were kept.

   Note: In purshasing and selling, it was once customary for traders to have two sticks, or one stick cleft into two parts, and to mark with a score or notch, on each, the number or quantity of goods delivered, -- the seller keeping one stick, and the purchaser the other. Before the use of writing, this, or something like it, was the only method of keeping accounts; and tallies were received as evidence in courts of justice. In the English exchequer were tallies of loans, one part being kept in the exchequer, the other being given to the creditor in lieu of an obligation for money lent to government.

2. Hence, any account or score kept by notches or marks, whether on wood or paper, or in a book; especially, one kept in duplicate.

3. One thing made to suit another; a match; a mate.

   They were framed the tallies for each other.
   --Dryden.

4. A notch, mark, or score made on or in a tally; as, to make or earn a tally in a game.

5. A tally shop. See Tally shop, below.

   Tally shop, a shop at which goods or articles are sold to customers on account, the account being kept in corresponding books, one called the tally, kept by the buyer, the other the counter tally, kept by the seller, and the payments being made weekly or otherwise by agreement. The trade thus regulated is called tally trade.
   --Eng. Encyc.

   To strike tallies, to act in correspondence, or alike. [Obs.]
   --Fuller.

mid-15c., "keep an account by tally," from Medieval Latin talliare "to tax," from tallia (see tally (n.)). Meaning "correspond, agree" is from 1705; sports sense of "to score" is from 1867. Related: Tallied; tallying. Hence tally-sheet (1889); tallyman "one who keeps account (of anything)" (1857).

mid-15c., "stick marked with notches to indicate amount owed or paid," from Anglo-French tallie (early 14c., Old French taille "notch in a piece of wood signifying a debt"), Anglo-Latin talea (late 12c.), from Medieval Latin tallia, from Latin talea "a cutting, rod, stick" (see tailor (n.), and compare sense history of score). Meaning "a thing that matches another" first recorded 1650s, from practice of splitting a tally lengthwise across the notches, debtor and creditor each retaining one of the halves; the usual method of keeping accounts before writing became general (the size of the notches varied with the amount). Sports sense of "a total score" is from 1856. Also in 19c. British provincial verbal expression live tally, make a tally bargain "live as husband and wife without marrying."

Etymology 1

1. (label en British) Used as a mild intensifier: very (almost exclusively used by the upper classes). interj. (label en radio aviation) Target sighted. Etymology 2

   n. 1 Originally, a piece of wood on which notches or scores were cut, as the marks of number; 2 Later, one of two books, sheets of paper, etc., on which corresponding accounts were kept. 3 Hence, any account or score kept by notches or marks, whether on wood or paper, or in a book, especially one kept in duplicate. v

2. 1 (context transitive English) To count something. 2 (context transitive English) To record something by making marks. 3 (context transitive English) To make things correspond or agree with each other. 4 (context intransitive English) To keep score. 5 (context intransitive English) To correspond or agree. 6 (context nautical English) To check off, as parcels of freight going inboard or outboard. Etymology 3

   adv. (context obsolete English) In a tall way; stoutly; with spirit.

1. n. a score in baseball made by a runner touching all four bases safely; "the Yankees scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th"; "their first tally came in the 3rd inning" [syn: run]

2. a bill for an amount due [syn: reckoning]

3. the act of counting; "the counting continued for several hours" [syn: count, counting, numeration, enumeration, reckoning]

4. v. be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics; "The two stories don't agree in many details"; "The handwriting checks with the signature on the check"; "The suspect's fingerprints don't match those on the gun" [syn: match, fit, correspond, check, jibe, gibe, agree] [ant: disagree]

5. gain points in a game; "The home team scored many times"; "He hit a home run"; "He hit .300 in the past season" [syn: score, hit, rack up]

6. keep score, as in games [syn: chalk up]

7. determine the sum of; "Add all the people in this town to those of the neighboring town" [syn: total, tot, tot up, sum, sum up, summate, tote up, add, add together, add up]

8. [also: tallied]

Tally may refer to:

• Tally marks

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A tally (also see tally sticks) is an unofficial private observation of an election count carried out under Proportional Representation using the Single Transferable Vote. Tallymen, appointed by political candidates and parties, observe the opening of ballot boxes and watch as the individual ballot papers are counted. Individual tallymen may be placed to observe the opening of each box and watch as separate bundles of ballot papers are sorted, stacked and counted. They record their estimation of counts by marking votes for each candidate on their 'tally sheet' as a tick (/) which are then assembled together to produce a full prediction of what the likely outcome of the result will be. Many political parties, having been rival during elections, co-operate in producing a tally.

Tally results are then released to the media before a formal account may even have begun, allowing predictions as to how some, or in most cases all, the seats in multi-member constituencies, may go hours in advance of the official count, by noting how many number 1s a candidate may get, who gets their number 2s, whether voters vote for one party or spread their first, second, third, fourth etc. preferences randomly, by party, by alphabet, by local area, or by some other criteria. In the Republic of Ireland, a national prediction of an election outcome may be made on RTÉ by lunchtime on count day, before a single seat has officially been filled.

Tally results are used after the elections by political parties to work out, on the basis of from which ballot box the tally came, how many votes they picked in a particular area, or even a particular street. The planned introduction in the Republic of Ireland of electronic voting for the 2004 local elections was expected to lead to the demise of the tally system, however, widespread criticism of the electronic voting programme has meant that a hand-count remains in operation in Ireland 1. Tally predictions and long complex counts have given election outcomes on television and radio much of their appeal, making election results coverage, which may last from 15 hours to days, depending on the closeness of an election, producing a form of spectator sport watched by vast viewerships.

For a sort of variation on writing numbers in the unary numeral system, see Tally mark.

Tally was a leading American manufacturer of printers.

Founded in 1949 in Kent, Washington, United States by Philip Renshaw, the company was a leading manufacturer of punch tape readers. In 1970 Tally developed line matrix printer technologies and became a leader in the printer industry.

In 1972 Mannesmann Präzisiontechnik was founded as a subsidiary of Mannesmann AG, specialising in dot matrix printers. In 1979 Tally and Mannesmann Präzisiontechnik were merged to form Mannesmann Tally, part of the Mannesmann Kienzle computer group. Mannesmann Tally offered printing solutions in all major technologies into all key markets, along with service and support.

Printers providing APL characters were produced in cooperation with I. P. Sharp Associates in order to support their international timesharing network. The flexible, though challenging, method of pin-firing allowed the full APL set of characters to be printed as well as an enhanced set of more universal (worldwide) glyphs. James C. Field created the dot-matrix images with the help of a software trick invented by L. M. Breed (q.v).

In 1996 Tally was reformed as part of a management buy out from Mannesmann, backed by Legal & General Ventures. World headquarters was in Elchingen, Germany with subsidiaries and business partners in more than 130 countries. Production continued in Elchingen for serial dot matrix and professional inkjet printers, and in Kent for line printers and color development. In 2003, Tally merged with GENICOM to form TallyGenicom. In 2009, the TallyGenicom brand was acquired by Printronix. The intellectual property and worldwide distribution rights for the TallyGenicom serial matrix, inkjet and thermal technologies were retained by TallyGenicom AG and acquired by DASCOM in June 2009. DASCOM Europe now market the full range of the former TallyGenicom brand of serial, passbook and mobile printers under the ‘Tally' brand name.

The tally on a sailor's cap is a ribbon usually bearing the name of a ship or some other establishment to which he belongs.

Practice varies with each navy, though a conventional tally is black, with a gold or yellow inscription. The inscription may be simply a ship's name (e.g. "H.M.A.S. ARRERNTE"), the name of the navy ("MARINE NATIONALE") or a longer name such as "Red Banner Baltic Fleet" . During World War II the ship's name would often be omitted from the tally (leaving just "H.M.A.S", for example) as a precautionary measure against espionage.

Likewise the manner a tally is fastened onto the cap varies with each navy. For example, the British tie it into a bow on the left side; the Germans and Russians tie it at the back, leaving behind a pair of streamers; while the French stitch it onto the cap like an ordinary cap band.

Occasionally the tally's colour may vary from the usual black (such as the Ribbon of Saint George tallies used in the Soviet and Russian navies to denote Guards units).