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What do truxtop and thumb tax mean?

I found them mentioned in this quotation from English Words History and Structure, 2nd edition (p. 113):

The replacement of the sequence [ks] by x is a spelling convention. It has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant cluster. This replacement practice has given rise to attention-getting facetious spellings like thanx, truxtop, thumb tax.

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As your source has stated, replace the x with the letters ks. This will give you truckstop and thumbtacks. – coleopterist Mar 12 at 9:14
1  
ks or cks as appropriate. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 12 at 9:26
.... they used to have a head tax, but some bright guy discovered that if they changed to a thumb tax it would (nearly) double their take .... – GEdgar Mar 12 at 13:35

closed as not a real question by coleopterist, Andrew Leach, J.R., tchrist, RegDwighт♦ Mar 12 at 15:58

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1 Answer

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Don't know what truxtop is. But I've found a definition for thumb tax: reference

So thumb tax stands for thumbtacks (plural)

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