levy 復習

　Coca-Cola is to use smaller bottles and sell at higher prices rather than alter its famous sugar-laden secret recipe, while Irn-Bru faces a growing consumer backlash over fears a new lower sugar version will ruin Scotland’s national soft drink.
　The changes are part of the preparations underway in the fizzy drinks business for the sugar tax. The cost of some “price marked packs” of Coca-Cola sold in newsagents and convenience stores will increase by more than 10% in March, just before the new tax comes into effect the following month. ...
　The sugar tax – designed to help combat child obesity – was announced by then chancellor George Osborne in 2016 and he gave drinks-makers time to change their recipes if they wished to escape the levy. From April soft drinks manufacturers will be taxed at 18p per litre on drinks containing 5g of sugar or more per 100ml, or 24p per litre if the drink has 8g of sugar or more per 100ml. The tax will apply to one in five drinks sold in the UK. (Skip the rest)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/05/coca-cola-to-sell-smaller-bottles-at-higher-prices-in-response-to-sugar-ta

　今回取り上げる語は、levy /lévi/ です。
　まず意味を確認します。Cambridge Dictionary をみると、”an amount of money, such as a tax, that you have to pay to a government or organization” とあります。また LDOCE をみると、”an additional sum of money, usually paid as a tax” と定義してありました。「金」の側面からみれば「徴収」という意味になることがわかります。また、『新英和中辞典』(研究社)をみると、「召集，徴用; 召集人員，徴募兵数」といった意味もあります。
　次に語源を確認します。OEDをみると、”Middle English (as a noun): from Old French levee, feminine past participle of lever ‘raise’, from Latin levare, from levis ‘light’.” とありました。
　最後に類語を確認します。levy(動詞)の類語に “impose” があるので、この２つの違いをみます。impose はLDOCEによると "if someone in authority imposes a rule, punishment, tax etc, they force people to accept it” とあり、Wikidoff をみると両者の違いは "impose is to establish or apply by authority while levy is to impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property.” とありました。(OkaUchi)