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The definition of a fee is a payment asked for or given, or inheritable land from a feudal lord in return for service.

(noun)

An example of a fee is an admission cost to a festival.
An example of a fee is a piece of land that a feudal lord gave a man in exchange for many years of work.

See fee in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

1. Historical heritable land held from a feudal lord in return for service; fief; feudal benefice
2. Historical the right to hold such land
3. Obsolete payment, service, or homage due a superior
payment asked or given for professional services, admissions, licenses, tuition, etc.; charge
Now Rare a present of money; tip; gratuity
an inheritable estate in real property

Origin: ME, estate, fief, payment < Anglo-Fr (< OFr feu, fief < Gmc, as in OHG feho, fihu, akin to OE feoh) < IE base *pek- > OE feoh, cattle, property

transitive verb feed, feeing

Now Rare to give a fee, or tip, to

See fee in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A fixed sum charged, as by an institution or by law, for a privilege: a license fee; tuition fees.
A charge for professional services: a surgeon's fee.
A tip; a gratuity.
Law An inherited or heritable estate in land.
a. In feudal law, an estate in land granted by a lord to his vassal on condition of homage and service. Also called feud², fief.
b. The land so held.

transitive verb feed feed, fee·ing, fees

To give a tip to.
Scots To hire.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English fe

Origin: , from Old English feoh, cattle, goods, money

Origin: , and from Anglo-Norman fee, fief (from Old French fie, fief, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English feoh); see peku- in Indo-European roots

Word History: It is possible to see the idea of money taking hold of the human mind by studying a few words that express the notion of wealth or goods. The word fee now denotes money paid or received for a service rendered. Fee comes from Old English feoh, which has three meanings, all equally ancient: “cattle, livestock”; “goods, possessions, movable property”; “money.” The Germanic form behind the Old English is *fehu, which derives by Grimm's Law from Indo-European *peku-, “cattle.” *Fehu is therefore a cognate of Latin pecu, “cattle,” also a direct descendant of Indo-European *peku-. Latin pecu has several derivatives that ultimately were borrowed into English. One was pecūnia, “money,” the source of our word pecuniary. Another was pecūliāris, “pertaining to one's pecūlium or property,” the source of our word peculiar. Finally, our word peculator comes from yet a third derivative, pecūlātor, “embezzler of public money, peculator.”

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