Picture a stick of wood with cuts in it. Every time something happens — one sack delivered, one coin owed — someone cuts another notch, so the count lives in the marks and not in anybody's head. Then the stick is split down the middle and each side keeps half. When it is time to settle up, the two halves are pushed back together: notch has to meet notch. One stick, two jobs — adding things up, and proving the two sides agree.
From the word’s history
The source traces tally to Middle English talie, from Anglo-Norman tallie and Old French taille, a notch cut in a piece of wood to record a debt, and further back to Latin talea, a cutting or stick. The notched stick is where both modern uses start.
來源記載 tally 來自中古英文 talie，再往前是盎格魯諾曼語 tallie 與古法文 taille——「木頭上記債的凹痕」，更早是拉丁文 talea（削下的枝條、木棍）。所以「刻痕的木棍」不只是好記的比喻，來源本身就這樣寫。
Wiktionary (kaikki extract in this packet), tally noun, etymology 2: Middle English talie < Anglo-Norman tallie / Old French taille 'notch in a piece of wood signifying a debt' < Medieval Latin tallia < Latin talea 'a cutting, rod, stick'.
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