← Table of contents
Six Centuries of English Poetry

Note 13 — THE COTTER'S1 SATURDAY NIGHT.

Reading edition

penny-fee. Fee, wages, from A.-S. feoh, cattle. "Cattle," says Bosworth, "was the first kind of property; and, by bartering, this word came to signify money in general." So, too, the word penny is from A.-S. penig, Icelandic peningr, cattle. The word penny, as in this country the word dollar, is used indefinitely for money.

Explore with AITake your curiosity a little further.

Reading settings