fee
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: fē
ipa: /fiː/
rhymes: -iː
homophone: fi
Forms: form: fees
Etymology: From Middle English fee, fe, feh, feoh, from Old English feoh (“cattle, property, wealth, money, payment, tribute, fee”) with contamination from Old French fieu, fief (from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (see feud), from Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”); whence fief), both from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep, livestock, owndom”), from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu (“livestock”).
Cognate with Old High German fihu (“cattle, neat”), Scots fe, fie (“cattle, sheep, livestock, deer, goods, property, wealth, money, wages”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), Low German Veeh (“cattle, livestock, property”), Veh, 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”), Sanskrit पशु (paśu, “cattle”).
Senses: examples: late fee; license fee, admission fee; activation fee; service fee
glosses: An amount charged for a privilege.
examples: text: legal fees; consulting fees
text: Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.
ref: 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:
glosses: An amount charged for professional services.
glosses: An additional monetary payment charged for a service or good, especially one that is minor compared to the underlying cost.
topics: law
glosses: An inheritable estate in land, whether absolute and without limitation to potential heirs (fee simple) or with limitations to particular kinds of heirs (fee tail).
topics: law
glosses: A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
topics: law
glosses: Synonym of fief: the land so held.
synonyms: word: fief
extra: the land so held
topics: law
glosses: An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
examples: text: Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;
ref: 1807, William Wordsworth, “On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic”, in Poems in Two Volumes:
text: 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.
ref: 1844, James Russell Lowell, The Heritage:
text: 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.
ref: 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 121:
glosses: Synonym of possession.
synonyms: word: possession
glosses: Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
examples: text: For though sweet love to conquer glorious bee, / Yet is the paine thereof much greater than the fee.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
Derived terms: absolute fee simple
advance fee fraud
advance fee scam
alms-fee
amenity fee
attorney's fee
base fee
bullet fee
composition fee
conditional fee
convenience fee
court fee
defeasible fee
destination fee
entry fee
exit fee
facility fee
feeable
feebate
fee-fees
fee fees
fee-for-service
feeless
feepayer
feepaying
fee schedule
fee simple
fee-splitting
fee splitting
fee tail
feevee
filing fee
finder's fee
frank-fee
gas fee
great fee
handling fee
in fee
joining fee
junk fee
kill fee
kitchen-fee
knight's fee
late fee
license fee
licensing fee
nonfee
nuisance fee
qualified fee
registration fee
resort fee
service fee
setup fee
stole fee
stole-fee
unfeed
urban fee
Related terms: feoffee
fief