Etymologically
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fellow

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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

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