fee | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

feeling (n.)

late 12c., "act of touching, sense of touch," verbal noun from feel (v.). Meaning "a conscious emotion" is mid-14c. Meaning "what one feels (about something), opinion" is from mid-15c. Meaning "capacity to feel" is from 1580s.

feeble-minded (adj.)

also feebleminded, 1530s; see feeble + -minded. Related: Feeble-mindedness.

feebly (adv.)

late 13c., from feeble + -ly (2).

feedback (n.)

1920, in the electronics sense, "the return of a fraction of an output signal to the input of an earlier stage," from verbal phrase, from feed (v.) + back (adv.). Transferred use, "information about the results of a process" is attested by 1955.

force-feed (v.)

by 1905 in animal husbandry, from force (n.) + feed (v.). Related: Force-fed; force-feeding. Force-feeding (n.) is from 1900.

feebleness (n.)

c. 1300, from feeble + -ness.

feeder (n.)

early 15c., "one who feeds (an animal);" 1560s, "one who eats;" agent noun from feed (v.). As a mechanical apparatus for conveying materials, from 1660s. Of cattle and streams, by 1790s; of roads and railroads, by 1850s.

feeler (n.)

early 15c., "one who feels," agent noun from feel (v.). Of animal organs, 1660s. Transferred sense of "proposal put forth to observe the reaction it gets" is from 1830. Related: Feelers.

feeb (n.)

slang for "feeble-minded person," by 1914, American English, from feeble. Other words used in the same sense were feeble (n.), mid-14c.; feebling (1887).

self-feeder (n.)

"one who or that which feeds itself" in any sense, 1877; see self- + feeder. Self-feeding (adj.), "keeping up a constant supply of anything in constant consumption" is attested from 1835.

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