fee

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See also fée, and Fee

Contents

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English fee, fe, feh, feoh, from Old English feoh (“cattle, property, wealth, money, payment, tribute, fee”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“sheep, cattle, owndom”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *peḱu- (“sheep”). Cognate with Scots fe, fie (“cattle, sheep, livestock, deer, goods, property, wealth, money, wages”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), Low German fee (“cattle, livestock, property”), German Vieh (“cattle, livestock”), Danish fæ (“cattle, beast, dolt”), Swedish fä (“beast, cattle, dolt”), Norwegian fe (“cattle”), Icelandic fé (“livestock, assets, money”), Latin pecū (“cattle”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

fee (plural fees)

  1. (obsolete) Cattle; livestock, especially considered as the basis of wealth.
  2. (obsolete) Property; owndom; estate.
    • 1844, The Heritage, by James Russell Lowell
      What doth the poor man's son inherit? / Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, / A hardy frame, a hardier spirit; / King of two hands, he does his part / In every useful toil and art; / A heritage, it seems to me, / A king might wish to hold in fee.
    • 1915, W.S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", chapter 121:
      Cronshaw had told him that the facts of life mattered nothing to him who by the power of fancy held in fee the twin realms of space and time.
  3. (obsolete) Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
  4. A monetary payment charged for professional services.
  5. (obsolete) A prize or reward.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:
      For though sweet love to conquer glorious bee, / Yet is the paine thereof much greater than the fee.
  6. (law) An estate of inheritance in land, either absolute and without limitation to any particular class of heirs (fee simple) or limited to a particular class of heirs (fee tail).
  7. (law) An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.

Translations[edit]

monetary payment charged for professional services

Verb[edit]

fee (third-person singular simple present fees, present participle feeing, simple past and past participle feed)

  1. To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden
      The patient . . . fees the doctor.
    • (Can we date this quote?), William Shakespeare
      There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.
    • Herman Melville, Omoo
      We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.

See also[edit]

Statistics[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Noun[edit]

fee (plural feë or feetjie, diminutive feetjies)

  1. fairy, pixie

Derived terms[edit]

  • feeagtig

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

fee f (plural feeën, diminutive feetje)

  1. fairy

Luxembourgish[edit]

Verb[edit]

fee

  1. second-person singular imperative of feeën

Manx[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

EB1911 - Volume 01 - Page 001 - 1.svg This entry lacks etymological information. If you are familiar with the origin of this term, please add it to the page as described here.

Verb[edit]

fee

  1. to weave, knit
  2. to plait, braid
  3. to interlace, intertwine
  4. to mat

Noun[edit]

fee m

  1. Verbal noun of fee.

Etymology 2[edit]

Noun[edit]

fee m

  1. genitive singular form of feeagh
  2. Plural form of feeagh

Mutation[edit]

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fee ee vee
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

West Frisian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Germanic; cognate with Dutch vee, German Fee and Icelandic fé

Noun[edit]

fee n

  1. livestock

Etymology 2[edit]

From French fée

Noun[edit]

fee c (pl feeën)

  1. fairy
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