Tally board

Meaning

Related words and phrases.

Meyrion’s small wooden tally board hangs at her waist and records bread deliveries through notches cut with a knife. Bois blanc denotes pale, light, relatively soft wood, not white paint; the novel names no species. The edition’s plain wood stresses the humble object. Coches are notches or tally marks rather than written numerals. This material routine, together with her tiny daily earnings, gives the bread carrier a working life before the prosecution absorbs her into political labels. The material sense is supported by the Académie française dictionary, “bois”, rather than inferred from the object’s price (https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9B1307).