Etymology
1. 1292, from O.Fr.
fieu, from M.L.
feodum "land or other property whose use is granted in return for service," probably from Frank.
*fehu-od "payment-estate," in which the first element is cognate with O.E.
feoh "money, property, cattle" (also Ger.
Vieh "cattle," Goth.
faihu "money, fortune"), from PIE
*peku- "cattle" (cf. Skt.
pasu, Lith.
pekus "cattle;" L.
pecu "cattle,"
pecunia "money, property"); second element similar to O.E.
ead "wealth." Sense of "payment for services" first recorded c.1390.
Fee-simple is "absolute ownership," as opposed to
fee-tail "entailed ownership," inheritance limited to some particular class of heirs (from O.Fr.
taillir "to cut, to limit").
2. 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 feud), from Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”); whence fief), both from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep, livestock, owndom”), from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu (“livestock”).
3. Cognates
4. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fäi (“cattle, livestock”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), Cimbrian biighe, viighe (“animal, beast”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), German Viech (“animal, beast”), Vieh (“livestock”), German Low German Veeh (“cattle, livestock, property”), Luxembourgish Véi (“cattle”), Vilamovian fi, fī, fii, fiih (“cattle, livestock”), Yiddish פֿי (fi), פֿיך (fikh, “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 (faihō), 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿 (faihu, “possessions, property; riches, wealth; money”); also Latin pecū (“cattle”), Old Prussian pecku (“cattle”), Armenian ասր (asr, “fleece, wool”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬎 (pasu, “livestock”), Bactrian ποσο (poso, “sheep”), Central Kurdish پەز (pez, “sheep”), Northern Kurdish pez (“sheep”), Ossetian фыс (fys, “sheep”), Talysh pəs, пәс (“sheep”), Sanskrit पशु (paśu, “cattle”). See: Swedish '
fä', Armenian '
ասր'.