tal·ly / ˈtalē/ • n. (pl. -lies) 1. a current score or amount: that takes his tally to 10 goals in 10 games. ∎  a record of a score or amount: I kept a running tally of David's debt on a note above my desk. ∎  a particular number taken as a group or unit to facilitate counting. ∎  a mark registering such a number. ∎  (also tal·ly stick) hist. a piece of wood scored across with notches for the items of an account and then split into halves, each party keeping one. ∎  an account kept in such a way. ∎ archaic a counterpart or duplicate of something.2. a label attached to a plant or tree, or stuck in the ground beside it, that gives information about it, such as its name and class.• v. (-lies, -lied) 1. [intr.] agree or correspond: their signatures should tally with their names on the register.2. [tr.] calculate the total number of: the votes were being tallied with abacuses.DERIVATIVES: tal·li·er n.

tally a current score or amount; the original meaning (in late Middle English) was a stick or rod of wood scored across with notches for the items of an account; it was customary for the debtor and creditor to split the piece of wood in half lengthways through the notches, each party keeping one piece. The word comes via Anglo-Norman French from Latin talea ‘twig, cutting’.

tally rod of wood marked with notches recording payments XV; reckoning, score XVI; counterpart XVII. — AN. tallie = AL. tal(l)ia, for L. tālea cutting, rod, stick.
So tally vb. †score, mark down XV; agree, accord XVIII.

Tally

a number, group, or series, 1674; a unit of measure, sometimes, five dozen objects.

Examples : tally of cabbage, 1891; of cauliflowers, 1883; of hops, 1868; of marrows, 1891; of squirary (young squires), 1327; of turnips (five dozen bunches), 1851.