Why this word is great
PEDAGE — [Noun] A toll or tax paid by passengers traveling through a specific place, entitling them to safe conduct and protection. From Latin pedagium, from pedaticum, derived from ped- ("foot") + -age (denoting a charge or fee). Unlike "toll" (a general fee for passage, indifferent to safety) or "tribute" (a coerced offering of fealty), pedage is a transactional covenant: protection purchased step by step. It is the coin pressed into the palm of a bridgekeeper at dusk, the whispered bargain with a ferryman whose oars part foggy waters, the weight of a merchant’s purse growing lighter as he passes through the shadow of a fortified gate—proof that safety, too, has always been a commodity.