1) A term for payments made for completed work, found in early Latin texts.
1304-5 Item cementer[iis] pro pont[e] de Kyldewyk’. In allocancia denariorum iij qr. It could be a compensatory payment: 1442 I will that the saide Robert have alowans of his clothing that is be hynde, Hemingbrough, or a sum allowed for in an account: 1490 Robart Goles brought with him a byll of alowaince for Aykton Kilne
1518 we haske a lowans that we hayffe layd doun abowytt the rapracion of the kyrke, York, or an extra payment, a consideration: 1567 the curet of Spofforth, for his half yeare’s wagis & allowans for gathering and leading of tythe xiij li. A section of the accounts of 1456-7 for Fountains Abbey, headed Allocaciones, which covered a wide variety of payments, included compensation for flooded meadows [pratis destructis per aquam] or land lost when a bridge was built [pro parte pontis positi super solum eius]. The word has survived in dialect, usually abbreviated to ‘lowance’, and was commented on by one nineteenth-century employer: 1841 when the men worked away they were given money for ‘lowances to cover their expenses … the term also meant the provision of ale or beer when they worked at the open hearth .