fee
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: law
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”).
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fäi (“cattle, livestock”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), Cimbrian biighe, viighe (“animal, beast”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), German Viech (“animal, beast”), Vieh (“livestock”), German Low German Veeh (“cattle, livestock, property”), Luxembourgish Véi (“cattle”), Vilamovian fi, fī, fii, fiih (“cattle, livestock”), Yiddish פֿי (fi), פֿיך (fikh, “cattle, livestock”), Danish and Faroese fæ (“cattle, livestock”), Icelandic fé (“assets, livestock, money”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fe (“cattle, livestock”), Swedish fä (“beast, cattle, dolt”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍉 (faihō), 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿 (faihu, “possessions, property; riches, wealth; money”); also Latin pecū (“cattle”), Old Prussian pecku (“cattle”), Armenian ասր (asr, “fleece, wool”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬎 (pasu, “livestock”), Bactrian ποσο (poso, “sheep”), Central Kurdish پەز (pez, “sheep”), Northern Kurdish pez (“sheep”), Ossetian фыс (fys, “sheep”), Talysh pəs, пәс (“sheep”), Sanskrit पशु (paśu, “cattle”).
Inflected forms:
form: fees
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: fees
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: feeing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: feed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: feed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An amount charged for a privilege.
pos: noun
examples: late fee
license fee
admission fee
activation fee
service fee
gloss: An amount charged for professional services.
pos: noun
examples: legal fees
consulting fees
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.
gloss: An additional monetary payment charged for a service or good, especially one that is minor compared to the underlying cost.
pos: noun
gloss: 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).
pos: noun
gloss: A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: Synonym of fief: the land so held.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: Synonym of possession.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
obsolete
examples: Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;
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.
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.
gloss: Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: For though sweet love to conquer glorious bee, / Yet is the paine thereof much greater than the fee.
gloss: To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
pos: verb
examples: In vain for Hellebore the patient cries / And fees the doctor; but too late is wise
There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.
We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.
It was at a much earlier hour than that which Mrs. Santon had named, that Delwood presented himself, and handsomely feeing the porter who answered his summons, he asked to see Miss Santon […]
Related words: feoffee
fief
Derived words: 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
in-lieu fee
joining fee
junk fee
kill fee
kitchen-fee
knight's fee
kosher fee
late fee
license fee
licensing fee
nonfee
nuisance fee
qualified fee
registration fee
resort fee
service fee
setup fee
stole fee
stole-fee
transfer fee
unfeed
urban fee
Translations: