fiscal
Noun pluralfiscals
Pluralfiscals
- 1Relating to a government or organization's treasury, especially its spending and the money it takes in.
The finance minister outlined new fiscal measures aimed at reducing the deficit.
Critics argued the administration's fiscal policy favored short-term growth over stability.
Note
The core sense, and the one the rest of the word grows from: Latin fiscus meant "treasury", and the adjective came into English through Middle French. It sits most naturally before abstract nouns of government and administration, as in fiscal matters and fiscal system. In fiscal lawyer it marks a specialist in the public purse rather than in money generally.
- 2Relating to the twelve-month accounting period used for budgeting and financial reporting rather than the calendar year.
The agency closed the fiscal year with a small surplus.
Profits rose sharply in the final quarter of the fiscal year.
Similarfinancial
Note
A compact construction worth knowing: fiscal can stand alone before a year number, with year understood. John Zeh, writing in Gay Community News in 1990, compares an allotment with what the Pentagon spent on military bands "in fiscal 1990". The pattern belongs to budget and reporting prose, and it reads as a label for an accounting period, not as a description.
The program's budget was cut sharply in fiscal 2004.
Revenue is projected to recover by fiscal 2026.
- 3Relating to money and financial matters in general.
The report examined the fiscal impact of the merger on shareholders.
His fiscal advice helped the startup manage its early cash flow.
Similarfinancial, monetary, economic, pecuniary
Note
A widening many careful writers object to: stretching the word from public treasuries to any money at all. Usage guides proscribe it, so for private or personal money, such as a person's savings or a startup's cash flow, financial is the safer choice. Keep fiscal for the government-revenue meaning, where nobody will fault it.
- 4An official in certain countries responsible for controlling public revenue.
The fiscal presented the year's revenue figures to the council.
As fiscal, she oversaw every payment into the public treasury.
Similartreasurer, comptroller
Note
Here the adjective has become a title: the officer of the treasury, named after the treasury meaning. In older English prose it is often capitalized like any office. Charlotte Smith's Desmond (1792) has a narrator "interrogated by the Fiscal", a reminder that the word usually turns up in accounts of foreign administrations rather than English ones.
- 5In Scotland, the public prosecutor responsible for investigating crimes and bringing cases before the court; short for procurator fiscal.
The fiscal declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence.
Witnesses gave statements to the fiscal before the trial began.
Similarprosecutor
Note
A Scots legal title in everyday shortened form. The full style is procurator fiscal, but courtroom reports and ordinary speech simply say "the fiscal". The office receives reports from the police, investigates sudden deaths, and decides whether to prosecute in the Sheriff Court or the Justice of the Peace Court. Its link to the treasury survives only in the name.
- 6In countries such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands and their former colonies, a senior government lawyer equivalent to a solicitor or attorney general.
The fiscal filed charges against the former minister for corruption.
As fiscal, he represented the government in every major prosecution.
Similarprosecutor
Note
A law-officer title kept untranslated in English writing about Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch legal systems and their former colonies. Its rank is the thing to notice. This is a senior state lawyer at the level of a solicitor or attorney general, not the courtroom prosecutor of the Philippine usage, although both may appear in English as "the fiscal".
- 7A public prosecutor in the UK, or the equivalent district attorney in the US, who brings criminal charges on behalf of the state.
The fiscal opened the trial by outlining the evidence against the accused.
Defense lawyers complained that the fiscal had withheld key documents.
Similarprosecutor
Note
Philippine English took this sense from Spanish fiscal, not by the French route behind the other senses. A Filipino fiscal is the prosecutor who brings criminal cases. The UK and US terms in the definition are translations for outside readers, not places where the word is used, so elsewhere "prosecutor" or "district attorney" is the natural choice.
- 8Any of various African shrikes of the genus Lanius, small predatory songbirds that hunt insects and small animals.
The fiscal darted from its perch to seize a grasshopper.
Several fiscals patrolled the thornbush, each guarding its territory.
Similarshrike
Note
The bird's name has a grim backstory. It comes from Afrikaans fiskaal, a word for a public official and also for a hangman, and is unrelated to the treasury senses. The name suits shrikes, which are known for impaling captured prey on thorns or barbed wire to store it, like an executioner displaying his work.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle French fiscal, which came from Latin fiscus, meaning "treasury."
From Spanish fiscal, ultimately from Latin fiscus, meaning "treasury."
Named after Afrikaans fiskaal, meaning "public official" or "hangman."