Fee Definition

Origin of Fee

• From Middle English, from Old French fieu, fief (English fief), from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum, from Old Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *peḱu- (“sheep”). Cognate with Old High German fihu (“cattle, neat”), Old English feoh (“cattle, property, money”), 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”).

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English fe from Old English feoh cattle, goods, money and from Anglo-Norman fee fief (from Old French fie, fief) (of Germanic origin) (Old English feoh) peku- in Indo-European roots

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition