fee

See also: Fee, fée, fêe, feë, fe'e, and fɛɛ́

English

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”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: fē IPA(key): /fiː/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iː
  • Homophone: fi

Noun

fee (plural fees)

  1. An amount charged in return for permission to do something:
    television license fee
    1. An amount charged ancillary to the (occasionally null) base cost of a product or service; an additional charge, nominally for some additional privilege, ability or permission.
      booking fee, late fee
      no hidden fees; &nbsp the sticker price is $1 but all the extra fees push the price into triple digits;   it costs just 4.99 and there are no fees
    2. An amount charged for something: the base cost of purchasing some thing, service, etc.
      Synonym: tax
      admission fee, membership fee, drivers' license fee
      the fee for entry to the zoo is increasing from 50 to 60 dollars
  2. A fixed rate or price charged for (chiefly white-collar) professional services.
    lawyers' fees, tuition fee, bank fees, legal fees, consulting fee
    • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:
      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.
  3. (law) 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).
  4. (law, historical) A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
  5. (law, historical) Synonym of fief: the land so held.
  6. (law, historical) An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
  7. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of possession.
    • 1807, William Wordsworth, “On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic”, in Poems in Two Volumes‎[1], archived from the original on 19 September 2026:
      Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;
      And was the safeguard of the west: the worth
      Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
      Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.
    • 1844, James Russell Lowell, The Heritage:
      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.
    • a. 1881, Oscar Wilde, 'To Milton', in Poems‎[2]:
      This England, this sea-lion of the sea,
      By ignorant demagogues is held in fee,
      Who love her not: Dear God! is this the land
      Which bare a triple empire in her hand
      When Cromwell spake the word Democracy!
    • 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.
  8. (obsolete) Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
  9. (obsolete) A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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.
    • 1693, John Dryden, “The Third Satire of Aulus Persius Flaccus”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis:
      In vain for Hellebore the patient cries / And fees the doctor; but too late is wise
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
      There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.
    • 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
      We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.
    • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:
      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 […]

See also

References

  • “fee”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch fee.

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)

Noun

fee (plural feë, diminutive feetjie)

  1. fairy, pixie

Akan

Verb

fee (Twi)

  1. transitive past tense of fe

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French fée, from Middle French [Term?], from Old French fae, from Latin fāta, from fātum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /feː/, [feː], [feɪ̯]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: fee
  • Rhymes: -eː
  • Homophone: vee (many northern speakers)

Noun

fee f (plural feeën, diminutive feetje n)

  1. (folklore) fairy

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: fee
  • → West Frisian: fee

Luxembourgish

Verb

fee

  1. second-person singular imperative of feeën

Manx

Etymology 1

From Old Irish figid, from Proto-Celtic *wegyeti (“to weave, compose”), from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to spin, weave”). Cognate with Irish figh.

Verb

fee

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

Noun

fee m (plural [please provide])

  1. verbal noun of fee

Etymology 2

Noun

fee m

  1. genitive singular of feeagh
  2. plural of feeagh

Mutation

Mutation of fee
radical lenition eclipsis
fee ee vee

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Manx.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Middle English

Noun

fee

  1. alternative form of feye (“liver”)

Murui Huitoto

Etymology

Cognates include Minica Huitoto fee and Nüpode Huitoto pee.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈɸɛː]
  • Hyphenation: fee

Root

fee

  1. flying

Derived terms

References

  • Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017), A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.‎[3], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 556

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

fee n

  1. (non-standard since 1917) definite singular of fe

Romanian

Etymology

    Borrowed from French fée.

    Noun

    fee f (plural fee)

    1. fairy

    Declension

    singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative-accusative fee feea fee feele
    genitive-dative fee feei fee feelor
    vocative fee, feeo feelor

    West Frisian

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /feː/

    Etymology 1

    From Old Frisian fia, from Proto-West Germanic *fehu.

    Noun

    fee n (no plural)

    1. livestock
    Further reading
    • “fee (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

    Etymology 2

    Borrowed from Dutch fee, from French fée.

    Noun

    fee c (plural feeën, diminutive feeke)

    1. fairy
    Further reading
    • “fee (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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