fee

English Online Dictionary. What means fee‎? What does fee mean?

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”).

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”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: fē IPA^(key): /fiː/
• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophone: fi

Noun

fee (plural fees)

1. An amount charged for a privilege.

   late fee; license fee, admission fee; activation fee; service fee

2. An amount charged for professional services.

   legal fees; consulting fees
3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) An additional monetary payment charged for a service or good, especially one that is minor compared to the underlying cost.
4. (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).
5. (law, historical) A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
6. (law, historical) Synonym of fief: the land so held.
7. (law, historical) An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
8. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of possession.
   • 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.
9. (obsolete) Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
10. (obsolete) A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.

Derived terms

Related terms

• feoffee
• fief

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.

See also

• fee on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• fee-faw-fum (probably etymologically unrelated)

References

• “fee”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• EFE, eef

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch fee.

Pronunciation

Noun

fee (plural feë, diminutive feetjie)

1. fairy, pixie

Related terms

• feeagtig

Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feː/
• Hyphenation: fee
• Rhymes: -eː

Noun

fee f (plural feeën, diminutive feetje n)

1. (folklore) fairy

Derived terms

• feeachtig
• feeërie
• feeëriek
• feetiran
• toverfee

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 (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. verbal noun of fee

Etymology 2

Noun

fee m

1. genitive singular of feeagh
2. plural of feeagh

Mutation

Middle English

Noun

fee

1. Alternative form of fey (“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.‎^[1], 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

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