Other forms: fees
A fee is the fixed price charged for a service or membership. Membership fee, legal fees, charge a fee.
It is fixed and named in advance, which is what separates it from a price negotiated or a bill run up by the hour — though professional fees are often exactly that. Fee-paying schools are the British term for private ones. Note that the Old English word meant cattle, and then property and money, since cattle were wealth.
1nounfeeThe fixed price charged for a service or membership.
“The gym charges a monthly fee, but classes are free for members.”
fee is a charge.
Old English feoh meant cattle, then property and money. Latin pecunia, money, comes from pecus, cattle, by the same logic.
Proto-Indo-European
*peḱ-
Proto-Indo-European
*péḱu — livestock
Proto-Germanic
*fehu — cattle, sheep, livestock, owndom
Frankish
*fehu — cattle, livestock
Medieval Latin
fevum
Old French
fieu
Old English
feoh — cattle, property, wealth, money, payment, tribute, fee
Middle English
fee
English, today
fee
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 a doublet of feud), from Frankish fehu (“cattle, livestock”); whence a doublet of fief), both from Proto-Germanic fehu (“cattle, sheep, livestock, owndom”), from Proto-Indo-European péḱu (“livestock”). 2 Cognate with stq Fäi (“cattle, livestock”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), cim biighe, viighe (“animal, beast”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), German Viech (“animal, beast”), Vieh (“livestock”), German Low German Veeh (“cattle, livestock, property”), lb Véi (“cattle”), wym fi, fī, fii, fiih (“cattle, livestock”), Yiddish פֿי, פֿיך (“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, 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿 (“possessions, property; riches, wealth; money”); also Latin pecū (“cattle”), prg pecku (“cattle”), Armenian ասր (“fleece, wool”), ae 𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬎 (“livestock”), xbc ποσο (“sheep”), ckb پەز (“sheep”), kmr pez (“sheep”), os фыс (“sheep”), tly pəs, пәс (“sheep”), Sanskrit पशु (“cattle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA