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Cost or Fee - What's the difference?

cost | fee |

In obsolete terms the difference between cost and fee

is that cost is a rib; a side while fee is a prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.

As nouns the difference between cost and fee

is that cost is manner; way; means; available course; contrivance while fee is a right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.

As verbs the difference between cost and fee

is that cost is to incur a charge; to require payment of a price while fee is to reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.

cost

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) (m), (etyl) dialectal . Related to (l).

Noun

(en noun)
  • Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
  • at all costs (= "by all means")
  • Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
  • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from , see below.

    Noun

    (wikipedia cost) (en noun)
  • Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
  • Derived terms
    {{der3, appraisal cost , at cost , carbon cost , cost and freight , cost avoidance , cost-benefit , cost benefit analysis , cost center , cost control , cost cutting , cost-effective , cost-efficient , cost function , costless , costly , cost objective , cost of business, cost of doing business, cost of sales , cost of living , cost of money , cost overrun , cost per avalable seat mile , cost price , cost-push , design to cost , flotation cost , landed cost , low-cost , marginal cost , opportunity cost , private cost , sunk cost , unexpired cost , unit cost , variable cost}}

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), .

    Verb

    See Usage notes.
  • To incur a charge; to require payment of a price.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
  • To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:though it cost me ten nights' watchings
  • (label) To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
  • To calculate or estimate a price.
  • :
  • Usage notes
    The past tense and past participle is cost'' in the sense of "this computer cost''' me £600", but ''costed'' in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was ' costed at $1 million."
    Derived terms
    * cost an arm and a leg * cost a pretty penny * cost the earth * how much does it cost

    Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A rib; a side.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • betwixt the costs of a ship
  • (heraldry) A cottise.
  • Statistics

    *

    fee

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (feudal law) A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.
  • (legal) An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
  • (legal) 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).
  • (obsolete) Property; owndom; estate.
  • * Wordsworth, On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic
  • Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee .
  • * 1844 , , by (James Russell Lowell)
  • What doth the poor man's son inherit? / Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, / A hardy frame, a hardier spirit; / King of two hands, he does his part / In every useful toil and art; / A heritage, it seems to me, / A king might wish to hold in fee .
  • * 1915 , :
  • Cronshaw had told him that the facts of life mattered nothing to him who by the power of fancy held in fee the twin realms of space and time.
  • (obsolete) Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
  • (obsolete) A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , IV.10:
  • For though sweet love to conquer glorious bee, / Yet is the paine thereof much greater than the fee .
  • A monetary payment charged for professional services.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}

    Verb

  • To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
  • * (rfdate)
  • The patient . . . fees the doctor.
  • * (rfdate),
  • There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed .
  • * Herman Melville, Omoo
  • We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.

    See also

    * (wikipedia)

    Statistics

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