|
fee
(f )
KEY
NOUN:
feed , feeˇing , fees
IDIOM: in fee Law
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English fe, from Old English feoh, cattle, goods, money, 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 pec nia, "money," the source of our word pecuniary. Another was pec li ris, "pertaining to one's pec lium or property," the source of our word peculiar. Finally, our word peculator comes from yet a third derivative, pec l tor, "embezzler of public money, peculator."
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||