fee

[Middle English fe, from Old English feoh, cattle, goods, money, and from Anglo-Norman fee, fief (from Old French fie, fief, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English feoh); see peku- in Indo-European roots.]

Word History: Fee comes from Old English feoh, which has three meanings: "cattle, livestock," "goods, possessions, movable property," and "money." The Germanic form behind the Old English is *fehu-, which derives by Grimm's Law from Indo-European *peku-, "movable wealth, cattle." In the ancient societies of Europe and Asia that spoke Indo-European languages, the wealth of a person or group was often measured by the size of their herds—just as it is in many traditional pastoral societies today. So it is natural that a word meaning "cattle" and "movable wealth" could also mean "money," as ancient economies developed and standard coinage of gold and silver was introduced. The same development from "livestock" to "money" can also be observed in the family of Latin words derived from pecu, "cattle," the direct Latin descendant of Indo-European *peku- and cognate of English fee. In Latin, many words relating to money and finance were derived from pecu, and several of these derivatives were ultimately borrowed into English, for example, pecūnia, "money," the source of our word pecuniary. Another was pecūliāris, "relating to one's pecūlium or personal property, particular to oneself," the source of our word peculiar. Finally, our word peculate comes from yet a third derivative, pecūlāre, "to embezzle public money."

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fee

[C14: from Old French fie, of Germanic origin; see fief]

ˈfeeless adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fee

n., v. feed, fee•ing. n.

1. a sum charged or paid, as for professional services or for a privilege: a doctor's fee; an admission fee.

3. a gratuity; tip.

4. to give a gratuity to; tip.

5. Chiefly Scot. to hire; employ.

in fee, in full ownership: an estate held in fee.

[1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French fie, variant of fief fief]

fee′less, adj.

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fee

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011