Etymology for Fee

Fee. This is another of those words which, like so many purely British names, spring from the soil which, in olden times, all commerce in Britain was bound up.

It comes from the Anglo-Saxon word feoh 'cattle'.
Those were the days of barter, before money held the significance which it holds today. The cattle were one of the principal means of making payment.

It is interesting to note, in passing, that the Latin capital was derived in a similar way from capita 'head of cattle', and pecunia 'money' from pecus, which also meant 'cattle'.

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