fee simple

noun
1.
See under fee (def 4a).
Origin
1425-75; late Middle English < Anglo-French

fee

[fee] /fi/
noun
1.
a charge or payment for professional services:
a doctor's fee.
2.
a sum paid or charged for a privilege:
an admission fee.
3.
a charge allowed by law for the service of a public officer.
4.
Law.
  1. 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)
  2. an inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
  3. a territory held in fee.
5.
a gratuity; tip.
verb (used with object), feed, feeing.
6.
to give a fee to.
7.
Chiefly Scot. to hire; employ.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French fie, variant of fief fief. See feudal
Related forms
feeless, adjective
overfee, noun
superfee, noun
Synonyms
1. stipend, salary, emolument; honorarium.
Examples from the web for fee simple
  • fee simple ownership, which relates only to real property, is completely free of conditions imposed by others.
British Dictionary definitions for fee simple

fee simple

noun
1.
(property law) an absolute interest in land over which the holder has complete freedom of disposition during his life Compare fee tail
Word Origin
C15: from Anglo-French: fee (or fief) simple

fee

/fiː/
noun
1.
a payment asked by professional people or public servants for their services: a doctor's fee, school fees
2.
a charge made for a privilege: an entrance fee
3.
(property law)
  1. an interest in land capable of being inherited See fee simple, fee tail
  2. the land held in fee
4.
(in feudal Europe) the land granted by a lord to his vassal
5.
an obsolete word for a gratuity
6.
in fee
  1. (law) (of land) in absolute ownership
  2. (archaic) in complete subjection
verb fees, feeing, feed
7.
(rare) to give a fee to
8.
(mainly Scot) to hire for a fee
Derived Forms
feeless, adjective
Word Origin
C14: from Old French fie, of Germanic origin; see fief
Word Origin and History for fee simple

fee

n.

late 13c., from Old French fieu, fief "fief, possession, holding, domain; feudal duties, payment," from Medieval Latin feodum "land or other property whose use is granted in return for service," widely said to be from Frankish *fehu-od "payment-estate," or a similar Germanic compound, in which the first element is cognate with Old English feoh "money, movable property, cattle" (also German Vieh "cattle," Gothic faihu "money, fortune"), from PIE *peku- "cattle" (cf. Sanskrit pasu, Lithuanian pekus "cattle;" Latin pecu "cattle," pecunia "money, property"); second element similar to Old English ead "wealth."

OED rejects this, and suggests a simple adaptation of Germanic fehu, leaving the Medieval Latin -d- unexplained. Sense of "payment for services" first recorded late 14c. Fee-simple is "absolute ownership," as opposed to fee-tail "entailed ownership," inheritance limited to some particular class of heirs (second element from Old French taillir "to cut, to limit").