The term pecuniary (“of or pertaining to money”) was adopted in 1506 from the Latin word pecunia, which meant “money.” This originated from the earlier term pecus, meaning “cattle,” as livestock was a measure of wealth in Ancient Rome. Pecus can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root peku, which had a similar meaning. Interestingly, this same root was borrowed into Proto-Germanic as fehu due to Grimm’s Law, which transformed voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives, changing the p to an f and the k to an h. This evolved into Old English feoh, also signifying “wealth in livestock,” and through some confusion with the Old French term fief (“possession”), it eventually evolved into fee, the term used for financial transactions today.
