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Webster 1913 Edition

Fee

Fee

(fē)
,
Noun.
[OE.
fe
,
feh
,
feoh
, cattle, property, money, fief, AS.
feoh
cattle, property, money; the senses of “property, money,” arising from cattle being used in early times as a medium of exchange or payment, property chiefly consisting of cattle; akin to OS.
fehu
cattle, property, D.
vee
cattle, OHG.
fihu
,
fehu
, G.
vieh
, Icel.
fē
cattle, property, money, Goth.
faíhu
, L.
pecus
cattle,
pecunia
property, money, Skr.
paçu
cattle, perh. orig., “a fastened or tethered animal,” from a root signifying
to bind
, and perh. akin to E.
fang
,
fair
, a.; cf. OF.
fie
,
flu
,
feu
,
fleu
,
fief
, F.
fief
, from German, of the same origin. the sense
fief
is due to the French. √249. Cf.
Feud
,
Fief
,
Fellow
,
Pecuniary
.]
1.
property; possession; tenure.
“Laden with rich fee.”
Spenser.
Once did she hold the gorgeous East in
fee
.
Wordsworth.
2.
Reward or compensation for services rendered or to be rendered; especially, payment for professional services, of optional amount, or fixed by custom or laws; charge; pay; perquisite;
as, the
fees
of lawyers and physicians; the
fees
of office; clerk’s
fees
; sheriff's
fees
; marriage
fees
, etc.
To plead for love deserves more
fee
than hate.
Shakespeare
3.
(Feud. Law)
A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.
4.
(Eng. Law)
An estate of inheritance supposed to be held either mediately or immediately from the sovereign, and absolutely vested in the owner.
☞ All the land in England, except the crown land, is of this kind. An absolute fee, or fee simple, is land which a man holds to himself and his heirs forever, who are called tenants in fee simple. In modern writers, by fee is usually meant fee simple. A limited fee may be a qualified or base fee, which ceases with the existence of certain conditions; or a conditional fee, or fee tail, which is limited to particular heirs.
Blackstone.
5.
(Amer. Law)
An estate of inheritance belonging to the owner, and transmissible to his heirs, absolutely and simply, without condition attached to the tenure.
Fee estate
(Eng. Law)
,
land or tenements held in fee in consideration or some acknowledgment or service rendered to the lord.
–
Fee farm
(Law)
,
land held of another in fee, in consideration of an annual rent, without homage, fealty, or any other service than that mentioned in the feoffment; an estate in fee simple, subject to a perpetual rent.
Blackstone.
–
Fee farm rent
(Eng. Law)
,
a perpetual rent reserved upon a conveyance in fee simple.
–
Fee fund
(Scot. Law)
,
certain court dues out of which the clerks and other court officers are paid.
–
Fee simple
(Law)
,
an absolute fee; a fee without conditions or limits.

–
Fee tail
(Law)
,
an estate of inheritance, limited and restrained to some particular heirs.
Burill.

Fee

(fē)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Feed
(fēd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Feeing
.]
To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
The patient . . .
fees
the doctor.
Dryden.
There's not a one of them but in his house
I keep a servant
feed
.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition

Fee

FEE

,
Noun.
[L. pecu, pecus. From the use of cattle in transferring property, or from barter and payments in cattle, the word came to signify money; it signified also goods, substance in general. The word belongs to Class Bg, but the primary sense is not obvious.]
A reward or compensation for services; recompense, either gratuitous, or established by law and claimed of right. It is applied particularly to the reward of professional services; as the fees of lawyers and physicians; the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage fees, &c. Many of these are fixed by law; but gratuities to professional men are also called fees.

FEE

,
Noun.
[In English, is loan. This word, fee, inland, or an estate in trust, originated among the descendants of the northern conquerors of Italy, but it originated in the south of Europe. See Feud.]
Primarily, a loan of land, an estate in trust, granted by a prince or lord, to be held by the grantee on condition of personal service, or other condition; and if the grantee or tenant failed to perform the conditions, the land reverted to the lord or donor, called the landlord, or lend-lord, the lord of the loan. A fee then is any land or tenement held of a superior on certain conditions. It is synonymous with fief and feud. All the land in England, except the crown land, is of this kind. Fees are absolute or limited. An absolute fee or fee-simple is land which a man holds to himself and his heirs forever, who are called tenants in fee simple. Hence in modern times, the term fee or fee simple denotes an estate of inheritance; and in America, where lands are not generally held of a superior, a fee or fee simple is an estate in which the owner has the whole property without any condition annexed to the tenure. A limited fee is an estate limited or clogged with certain conditions; as a qualified or base fee, which ceases with the existence of certain conditions; and a conditional fee, which is limited to particular heirs.
In the United States, an estate in fee or fee simple is what is called in English law an allodial estate, an estate held by a person in his own right, and descendible to the heirs in general.

Definition 2024

Fee

Fee

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

German

Noun

Fee f ‎(genitive Fee, plural Feen)

  1. fairy

Declension

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Old French fae.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /feː/
    • Rhymes: -eː

Noun

Fee f ‎(plural Feeën)

  1. fairy

Plautdietsch

Noun

Fee n

  1. cattle

fee

fee

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

English

Noun

fee ‎(plural fees)

  1. (feudal law) A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.
  2. (law) An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
  3. (law) An estate of inheritance in land, either absolute and without limitation to any particular class of heirs (fee simple) or limited to a particular class of heirs (fee tail).
  4. (obsolete) Property; owndom; estate.
    • Wordsworth, On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic
      Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  5. (obsolete) Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
  6. (obsolete) A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
  7. A monetary payment charged for professional services.
    • 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.

Derived terms

Related 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.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden
      The patient . . . fees the doctor.
    • (Can we date this quote?), William Shakespeare
      There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.
    • Herman Melville, Omoo
      We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.

See also

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: servant · doctor · Michael · #996: fee · excellent · Peter · instant

Afrikaans

Noun

fee ‎(plural feë, diminutive feetjie)

  1. fairy, pixie

Derived terms

  • feeagtig

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -eː

Noun

fee f ‎(plural feeën, diminutive feetje n)

  1. fairy

Luxembourgish

Verb

fee

  1. second-person singular imperative of feeën

Manx

Etymology 1

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

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fee ee vee
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

West Frisian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /feː/

Etymology 1

From Old Frisian fia, from Proto-Germanic *fehu, from Proto-Indo-European *peḱu- ‎(“livestock”); cognate with English fee, Dutch vee, Low German Veeh, German Vieh, Danish fæ and Icelandic fé.

Noun

fee n

  1. livestock

Etymology 2

From French fée

Noun

fee c (pl feeën)

  1. fairy

Etymology

Borrowing from French fée.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /feː/
  • Rhymes: -eː

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