fellow

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈfel.əʊ/, US /ˈfel.oʊ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English felawe,^[2][3] inherited from Old English fēolaga (“partner, one who shares with another”),^[4][2] borrowed from Old Norse félagi (“comrade, partner, shareholder”),^[4][2][5] from fé (“cattle, property, money”) and the Germanic base of lay,^[2][6][5] from Proto-Indo-European *legh- (“to lie down, lay”).^[4] Its literal sense is “one who lays down money with another in a joint undertaking”.^[4][2][6] Old Norse fé is related to fee.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A partner, one who shares with another in a possession or office: 1016, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

As the American Heritage Dictionary notes, the ancestor of the word referred to a business partner.^[8] A companion, comrade is from about 1200,^[4][7] one of the same kind from the early 13th century,^[4] and one of a pair from about 1300.^[4] Used familiarly for any man from the mid-15th century, it is not etymologically masculine, and the King James Bible uses it of women.^[4] It has been contemptuous or dignified at different times, and has often carried a tinge of condescension.^[4] The university sense, a member of a college corporation paid from its revenues, is from the mid-15th century,^[4] and a member of a learned society later.^[5][8] Fellow well met is from the 1580s.^[4] In compounds it has meant “co-, joint” since the 16th century, as in fellow-traveller, literal from the 1610s and in the 20th century a Communist sympathizer.^[4] Fellowship is from before 1200.^[2]

Timeline

• 1016 – a partner.^[2][7]
• before 1200 – fellowship.^[2]
• c. 1200 – a companion.^[4]
• c. 1300 – one of a pair.^[4]
• mid-15th century – any man; a college fellow.^[4]
• 1580s – fellow well met.^[4]
• 1610s – fellow-traveller.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (informal) A man or boy.
2. A companion or comrade.
3. A person of equal rank; a peer.
4. One of a pair; a match.
5. A member of a learned society, or of the governing body of a college.
6. A graduate student holding a fellowship.

Adjective

1. Being of the same group or kind: fellow workers.

Word family

• bedfellow
• blackfellow
• fella
• feller
• fellowly
• fellowship
• hail-fellow

Related words

• fee
• lay
• law

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin