Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SCOT, n.¹ [Sax. sceat, a part, portion, angle or bay, a garment or vest, a towel, cloth or sheet; sceat, sceata, sceatt, money, tax, tribute, toll, price, gift; sceta, scyta, a sheet. This is the English shot, in the phrase, he paid his shot; and scot, in scot and lot. Ice. skot, D. shot, a wainscot, shot, scot; schoot, a sheet, a shoot, a shot, a sprig, a bolt, the lap, the womb; G. schoss, scot, a shoot, and schooss, lap, womb; Sw. skatt, tax, tribute, rent, Eng. scot; Dan. skot, skat, id.; skiöd, the lap, the bosom, the waist of a coat; ecot, shot, reckoning, It. scotto; Sp. escote, shot, reckoning, a tucker, or small piece of linen that shades a woman's breast, also the sloping of a garment; escota, a sheet, in seamen's language; Port. escota; escote, shot, club. This word coincides in elements with shade, scud, shoot, shed and sheet, all of which convey the sense of driving, or of separating, cutting off.]

In law and English history, a portion of money, assessed or paid; a customary tax or contribution laid on subjects according to their ability; also, a tax or custom paid for the use of a sherif or bailif. Hence our modern shot; as, to pay one's shot. Scot and lot, parish payments. When persons were taxed unequally, or according to their ability, they were said to pay scot and lot. – Encyc.