means A running count or record of an amount, often kept by making marks as items are added up.

from From the Latin 'talea,' meaning a cutting, rod, or stick — the same word that gives us 'tailor' (one who cuts). It came into English through Anglo-French 'tallie,' naming the wooden 'tally stick' on which debts and counts were recorded with notches. The genius part: a stick could be split lengthwise, each party keeping a matching half, so the notches couldn't be forged — the cut itself was the proof.