Fellow sb.

Forms: 1 féolaȝa, 3–4 felaȝ2, felau, (3 felawȝe, fe-, feolah(e, feolawe, 4 felauh, south. velaȝe, 5 felay, -loy, -loȝe), 3–5 felagh(e, (3 south. velaghe), 3–5 fala, 4–5 fela, 3–6 felaw(e, 4–6 felow(e, (5–6 fel(l)o, 7 feloe), 6–7 fellowe, 6– fellow. Also Sc. 4–9 fallow, (5 fallowe, 6 falow); and in renderings of dialectal and vulgar speech, 9 fally, felly, fellaw, feller. [Late OE. féolaȝa wk. masc., a. ON. félage, f. fé = OE. feoh property, money (FEE sb.¹) + lag- (in ON. leggja, OE. lęcȝan:—OTeut. *lagjan) to LAY. The primary seme is ‘one who lays down money in a joint undertaking with others’; the related ON. félag str. neut. is ‘a laying together of money,’ a business partnership, hence a partnership or society generally. Cf. Da. fælle comrade, also fælles (:—ON. félags, gen. of félag) common.]

  I.  As simple sb.

  † 1.  One who shares with another in a possession, official dignity, or in the performance of any work; a partner, colleague, co-worker. Also, one united with another in a covenant for common ends; an ally. Obs.

1016.  O. E. Chron. (Cott, Tib. B iv). Beȝen þa cyningas [Eadmund and Cnut] … wurdon feolaȝan & wedbroðra … & feng þa Eadmund cyng to West Sexan & Cnut to þam norðdæle.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1761. Min mog, min neue, and felaȝe.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 7648 (Cott.).

1389.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 30. Y^e alderman & his felas.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 153/2. Fela, or felow yn offyce, collega.

c. 1466.  Sir J. Paston, in Lett., No. 566, II. 295. I wolde nat that myn oncle William scholde cawte hym to take on hym as hys felawe.

1534.  Whittington, trans. Tullyes Offices, I. (1540), 65. Pericles … had a felowe in offyce in his Mayraltie.

1546.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 226. Item, to Peter the sawyer and his felowe, for sawyng the tables.

1577.  Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist., 178. There rose warre betwene the tyrant and the Armenians, who vnto that time from the beginning were friendes and fellowes of the Romaines.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 294. Time, and Heat, are Fellowes in many Effects.

  † b.  In a bad sense: An accomplice. Obs. exc. as contextual use of 2.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 18415 (Trin.).

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. i. 23. Thi princes vnfeithfull, felawes of theues.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 154/1. Felowys, y-knytte to-gedyr in wykydnesse, complices.

c. 1500.  The Nut-Brown Maid, 133.

a. 1533.  Frith, Disput. Purgatorye, D iij. The bodye was felowe & pertener with the soule in commyttynge the cryme.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 911/1. When we goe about to doe euill, we thinke we are quit and innocent, if wee bee able to say, wee are not the first, and wee haue a great sort of fellowes.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xxi. Rothsay and his fellows … were in the street in mask.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 116. His fellows rescued him and beat the hangman.

  † c.  A partaker, sharer of. Obs.

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. vi. 10. A frend, felawe of the bord [1388, felowe of table].

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 895, Thisbe. I wol be felawe & cause eek of thy deeth.

c. 1400.  An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 49. Þis is not to offre to God, but to wylen to mak God felow of þis violence.

1545.  Primer Hen. VIII. (1546), 68. Felow of Thy Fathers light.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., III. ii. 39.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 606.

  2.  In vaguer use: One that is associated with another in habitual or temporary companionship; a companion, associate, comrade. Now rare exc. in pl., or with const. in.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues (1888), 139. He lið fram alle hise felawȝes.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 4888. Þemperour & he … felawes hade beene.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 397. Austyn com … wiþ fourty felawes.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 154/1. Felow yn walkynge by þe way, comes.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 163 b. Pryuate prayer that they saye by themselfe, or with a felowe.

1611.  Bible, Jonah i. 7. They said euery one to his fellow; Come, and let vs cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this euill is vpon vs.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 32. Felicitas with her seven Sons, were all at once fellowes in martyrdome.

1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., iv. 8. Have cost the lives of so many brave men, their fellows in arms.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 64. They, being separated from their fellows, were obliged to fly.

1797.  Lamb, Lett. (1888), I. 75. A friend should never be reduced to beg an alms of his fellow; yet I will beg an alms.

1874.  Morley, Compromise (1885), 111. This unspoken bargaining with the little circle of his fellows which constitutes the world of a man.

Proverb.

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faust., ii. Wks. (Rtldg.), 82/1. Ask my fellow if I be a thief.

1610.  A. Cooke, Pope Joan, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 40. Prot. The canonists, when popes alledge popes for proof, do note, that it is familiaris probatio. Meaning such belike, as that in the proverb, Ask my fellow, if I be a thief.

1678.  Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 201.

  † b.  Less frequently said of women. Obs.

c. 1330.  Florice & Bl., 509 (1857). Clarice … said to Blauncheflour Felawe knouestou thou ought this flour.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 8607 (Fairf.).

14[?].  Prose Legends, in Anglia, VIII. 194. She wente wiþ confessours & hir felowes, þat were wymen.

1598.  Yong, Diana, 301. The Nymphes our fellowes … tolde him (perhaps) that the Shepherds had carried vs away with them.

1611.  Bible, Judg. xi. 37. She said vnto her father, Let this thing be done for me, let me alone two moneths, that I may goe vp and downe vpon the mountaines and bewaile my virginitie, I, and my fellowes [1885 (Revised) companions].

  † c.  fig.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 29050 (Cott.).

c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 508.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 4842. Who so frend is & felow to þat foule vise.

1548.  Hall, Chron., 8. Good hope … is the best felowe and companion.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 12. Order is a jolly felowe.

  † d.  of animals. Obs.

c. 1300.  St. Brandan, 213. The fowel … to his felawes wende.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1702. A kenet kryes þerof, þe hunt on hym calles, His felaȝes fallen hym to.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 161. Those … eate up either their owne Egges or their fellowes.

1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, cccxxx. A Certain Shepherd had One Favourite-Dog, that he had a Particular Confidence in above all the rest. He fed him with his Own hand, and took more Care of him, in short, then of any of his Fellows.

  e.  of things.

c. 1420.  Palladius on Husb., III. 552.

1697.  Dryden, Virgil, Postcript. If the last Æneid shine amongst its fellows.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., III. 383.

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 201. The huge mass of Mam Tor rises over the valley of the southern Derwent, a height of less elevation than some of its fellows.

  3.  a. Good or jolly fellow: an agreeable or pleasant companion; usually, one who is fond of feasting and good company, a convivialist; = ‘boon companion.’ In pl. a set of jolly or sociable companions. † To be playing the good fellow: to be enjoying oneself in gay company.

c. 1305.  Pilate, 34, in E. E. P. (1862), 112. And for þat on was god and þat oþer schrewe: gode felawes neuere hi nere.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 395. And certeinly he was a good felawe.

c. 1450.  Merlin, 318. Thei wente to sitte doune alle v togeder as goode felowes and trewe.

1535.  Coverdale, Ecclus. xiii. 6. He shal be a good felowe with thee.

1570.  G. Buchanan, Admonitioun to the Trew Lordis, Wks. (1892), 24. Ministeris gettis all and leavis na thing to gude fallowis.

1640.  Bastwick, Lord Bps., vii. G b. They fill themselves with strong drinke, and are good Fellows.

1667.  Pepys, Diary, 14 Oct. I suppose he is playing the good fellow in the town.

1813.  L. Hunt, in Examiner, 15 Feb., 98/2. A Raic … we should interpret by the phrase Jolly Fellow.

1870.  Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Wks. (Bohn), III. 2. Good fellows, fond of dancing, port, and clubs.

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 62.

  † b.  Good fellow: a docile, manageable or tractable person or thing. Obs.

1575.  Turberv., Faulconrie, 101. When you haue obserued this order with hir twoo or three nyghtes, and that you perceyue she beginnes to bee muche better fellowe than shee was wonte, and that shee seemeth to beginne to bee reclaymed.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 31. The Oate is not daungerous in the choyse of his grounde, but groweth lyke a good fellowe in euery place. Ibid., III. 128. Whiche wyll make him [a steere] in three dayes, as good a fellowe as you woulde wishe him to be.

1639.  Lady Denton, in Verney Papers (1853), 274. The childe was feloe good a nofe in my house.

  c.  Fellow well-met: a boon companion. To be (hail) fellow well met: to be on terms of free and easy companionship with (a person).

1581.  Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., III. (1586), 171. Being as you say haile fellow well met with his servant.

1858.  Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alteram Partem, I. xxxvi. 137. The High Church Tory sinks his dislike to the Romanist, the Unitarian, and the Dissenter generally; and offers for the time being to be fellow well met with any of them, if they will only combine to keep out the Jew.

1885.  W. J. Fitzpatrick, Life of T. N. Burke, I. 308. The best fellow-well-met in the world.

  4.  The complementary individual of a pair; the mate, ‘marrow.’

  † a.  Of a person: The consort, spouse, husband or wife. Also of animals. Obs.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 9405 (Cott.).

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 6. Eve, my felow, how thynk the this?

1538.  in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials Scot., I. 251*. His [the King’s] derrest fallow the Quene.

a. 1592.  H. Smith, Serm. (1631), 16. It is good for man to haue a fellow.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 224. When they be but heifers of one yeare, or two yeres at the most (which is more tolerable) they are let go to the fellow and breed.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., III. i. 84.

  b.  That which makes a pair with something else; a counterpart, match.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., IV. viii. 42.

1623.  Sir R. Boyle, Diary (1886), II. 85. I gaue Sir W^m parsons Lady a fair bay coach gelding and am to send her a fellow to him.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 86, 8 June, ¶ 6. There is a double praise due to virtue when it is lodged in a body that seems to have been prepared for the reception of vice; in many such cases the soul and the body do not seem to be fellows.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. iii. 53. Two shoes that were not fellows.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxxi. 430. I ran,—ran as I never expect these scurvy-stiffened knees to run again,—throwing off first one mitten and then its fellow to avoid pursuit.

1874.  W. B. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. § 68. While one leg was convulsed, its fellow remained quiet.

  c.  That which matches or resembles another; the like.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 68.

1668.  R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev. (1708), 310. So terrible an Uproar, and Disorder in Hell, that … the oldest Devil never knew the Fellow of it.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxix. 46. Here are four other shifts, one the fellow to that I have on.

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 240. His march must, as a military exploit, have been the fellow of the great march which carried Harold from London to Stamfordbridge.

1884.  J. Payne, 1001 Nights, IX. 101. The watch, whose fashion also is of my own invention, nor is there the fellow of it in Bassora.

  d.  quasi-adj. An equivalent to; a match with.

1607.  Tourneur, Revenger’s Trag., I. i.

1674[?].  Lady Chaworth, in Hist. MSS. Comm., 12th Rep. App. v. 27. A very old perspective almost fellow to that you have.

1858.  Bushnell, Serm. New Life, 33. Following in the track of his will, and filling even immensity with their stupendous frame of order, they yet have nothing fellow to God in their substance.

  5.  One who shares with another in any attribute; one belonging to the same class:

  a.  in position or rank: An equal, peer. Now chiefly pl.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 19. Engles hwas felahes ha beoð.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22778 (Cott.). Þir men sal be þan his felaghes.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xxi. 21. Proude men þat raises þaim up singulerly & suffers na felaghis.

1456.  How the Wise Man Taught His Son, 130, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 175.

1529.  in Fiddes, Wolsey, II. (1726), 173. He us’d himself more like a Fellow to your Highness than like a subject.

1580.  Godly Admonition, in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (Parker Soc.), 573. Servants are become Master-like, and fellows with Masters: and Masters, unable to master their own affections, are become servants to other folks’ servants, yea, and to their own servants too.

1600.  Fairfax, Tasso, I. xii. 3.

1721–1800.  in Bailey.

  b.  in ability, qualities or value: A ‘match.’

1428.  Sc. Act 22 Jas. I., 1 Mar. (Record ed. II. 15/1). Of their rentis, ilk punde sal be vtheris fallowe to the contribution of þe said Costes.

c. 1450.  Holland, Howlat, 913. So fair is my fetherem I haf no falowe.

1551.  Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (Arb.), 28. In reasonynge, and debatyng of matters … he hadde few fellowes.

1583.  Hollyband, Campo di Fior, 53 Varro … amongest the learned maisters of this schoole hath no fellows.

1687.  T. Brown, Saints in Uproar, Wks. 1730, I. 73. Pay your respect to these two most incomparable saints and martyrs, St. Longinus and St. Amphibalus: upon my infallibility they have not their fellows in the almanack.

1738.  Swift, Directions to Servants. Feeling has no fellow.

1751.  Smollett, Per. Pic. (1870), I. xii. 57. Mr. Jennings is gone, and Mr. Keypstick will never meet with his fellow.

1892.  The Nation (N.Y.), 8 Dec., LV. 435/1. The personal element, the strange poetic nature which has had no fellow unless in Rembrandt, is gone.

  c.  in kind: One’s fellow-man, ‘neighbour’; also of things: Another of the sort.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 11. Wyl noon of you do to your felowe otherwyse than ye wolde be don to.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xvii. 87. Irrational creatures cannot distinguish between Injury, and Dammage; and therefore as long as they be at ease, they are not offended with their fellows.

1764.  Goldsm., The Traveller, 62.

1818.  Byron, Mazeppa, iii.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), II. viii. 241. There was no acknowledged legal right in churl … to make open war upon his fellow.

  d.  A contemporary. Chiefly pl.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vii. § 7. 425. Shakspere had now passed far beyond his fellows.

1886.  Swinburne, Middleton, in 19th Cent., Jan., 138. Fellows and followers of Shakespeare.

  6.  One of a company or party whose interests are common; a member.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 191.

c. 1450.  Merlin, 171. A felowe of the rounde table.

c. 1450.  Robin Hoode & Monk, lxxx., in Child, Ballads (1888), V. cxix. 100/2.

1481.  Caxton, Mirrour of the World, I. v. 22. He recorded their resons heeryng alle the felawys, ahd reherced to them alle to gydre that euery man had said.

1547–64.  Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 120. One vicious fellow destroyeth a whole companie.

1592.  West, 1st Pt. Symbol., § 27 B. The generall societie of goodes … extendeth to all thinges of the partners or fellowes.

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, lxii. 32. Sisters, Hesper a fellow of our bright company.

  7.  In college and university use:

  a.  orig. The name (corresponding to the Latin socius) given to the incorporated members of a college or collegiate foundation (whether in a University or otherwise: see COLLEGE 4); one of the company or corporation who, with their head, constitute a ‘college’; e.g., ‘the Provost and Fellows of Chelsea College, of Eton College, or King’s College, Cambridge’; ‘the Warden and Fellows of All Souls, Oxford.’

  In colleges chiefly devoted to the purposes of study and education, the Fellows were, in early usage, often included under the term scholars; the latter term is, in later use, mostly restricted to junior members of the foundation, who are still under tuition, the term fellow being applied to the Senior Scholars, who have graduated, or otherwise passed out of the stage of tutelage. In those colleges that have become educational institutions, undertaking the school or university teaching of youths not on the foundation, the Fellows consist of those graduate members who have been co-opted upon the foundation with emoluments from its corporate revenue, and who constitute with their Head (usually elected by themselves from their own number) the governing body of the institution. Most colleges of this class have now also Honorary Fellows, who receive no emoluments; and have no share in the government. When a distinguished man vacates his fellowship, he is often elected an honorary fellow.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. xviii. 401. That the maister and the felawis kepe the statutis of the collegis.

1511–2.  Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 22 § 5. Any … persone being fellowe or scoler of any of the said Colleges.

1644.  Hunton, Vind. Treat. Monarchy, v. 41. In the Colledges, the Fellowes have an effectuall, and more then morall limiting Power.

1691.  Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 17. Thomas Lynacre … was chosen Fellow of Allsouls Coll. in 1484 where by his close retirement, he improved himself very much in Literature.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Table Talk, in Coll. of Poems, 124. Nothing is so Imperious, as a Fellow of a College upon his own Dunghil; Nothing so despicable abroad.

1843.  Coleridge, in Stanley, Arnold’s Life & Corr. (1844), I. i. 8. Corpus is a very small establishment,—twenty fellows and twenty scholars, with four exhibitioners, form the foundation.

1886.  Laurie, Lect. Rise Univ., xiii. 247. It was thus a college composed solely of ‘Fellows.’

  b.  On the analogy of the preceding use, the designation ‘Fellows’ is now applied, in some universities, to the holders of certain stipendiary positions (called ‘Fellowships’) tenable by elected graduates for a limited number of years, on condition of pursuing some specified branch of study.

  The Radcliffe and the Craven Travelling Fellowships are the only examples in the ancient English Universities. Fellowships in this sense have been founded in the Scottish Universities, in the University of Durham and the Victoria University; and in some universities and colleges in the U.S.

1888.  Histor. Reg. Univ. Oxf., 110. Every Fellow is required to spend at least eight months of each year of his tenure of the [Craven] Fellowship abroad. Ibid., 112. The first two Fellows were elected [to Radcliffe’s Travelling Fellowships] in July 1715.

1892–3.  Edin. Univ. Cal., 537. Scholars, Bursars, or Fellows must apply to the Convener of the Science Degrees Committee.

  c.  In some of the younger British universities and colleges, and in some of those in the U.S., the ‘Fellows’ are the members of the governing or administrative body; in others the title is merely honorary, conferred as a special distinction on a limited number of graduates. Cf. sense 8.

1837.  Charter Univ. Lond. The Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Fellows … shall constitute the Senate of the said University.

  8.  The title given in various learned societies, either to all their members (as in the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries), or to a specially privileged class among them.

  In the case of the Royal Society, the official Latin equivalent is sodalis.

1664.  (title) A List of the Fellows of the Royal Society.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 15, 14 May, ¶ 2. A Fellow of the Royal Society, who had writ upon Cold Baths.

1801.  Med. Jrnl., V. 314. A Fellow, that is, any Member who resides within seven miles of London.

1886.  Act 49–50 Vict., c. 48 § 6. A fellow of a college of physicians.

  † b.  A bencher of an Inn of Court. Obs.

1536.  Wriothesley, Chron. (1875), I. 57. Their was an insurrection in Yorkeshire, and they made of them a captaine called Robart Aske, being an atturney of the lawe and felowe of Graies Inne.

  † c.  Fellow of the (order of the) Garter—Knight of the Order of the Garter. Obs.

1475.  The Boke of Noblesse, 46. The full noble knight, a felow of the Garter, ser Johan Chaundos, as a lion fighting in the feelde.

1584.  Powel, Lloyd’s Cambria, 397. He was chosen to be Fellowe of the order of the Garter.

  9.  A familiar synonym for: Man, male person.

  (Cf. COMPANION 5, and F. compagnon.)

  a.  with qualifying adj., as good, bad, brave, clever, foolish, old, young, etc., and in phrases like what a fellow, etc. (Cf. 3, from which this use was app. a development). Poor fellow: often used exclamatorily as an expression of pity.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xvii. 31. I hope I haue her felaws fonde.

1549.  Latimer, Ploughers (Arb.), 29. Moyses was a wonderful felowe, and dyd his dutie being a maried man.

1570–6.  Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1826), 280. This our good fellow was not so cunning (belike) as Dionysius was.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. 105. Vitruuius an excellent fellowe in building.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 229. Looke in thy last worke, where thou hast fegin’d him a worthy Fellow.

1642.  Rogers, Naaman, 108. Precise preachers and zealous fellowes.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 48, 25 April, ¶ 4. I am an old fellow, and extremely troubled with the gout; but having always a strong vanity towards being pleasing in the eyes of women, I never have a moment’s ease, but I am mounted in high-heeled shoes with a glazed wax-leather instep.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, XI. vii. You don’t know what a devil of a fellow he is.

1752.  Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), II. 313. In our own country, the chief praise bestowed, is always that of a good-natured, sensible fellow.

1811.  W. Combe, The Devil upon Two Sticks in England (1817), VI. 40. A most pleasant fellow of a clergyman.

1857.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 330. He looked dreadfully weak still, poor fellow! and coughed much, but not so incessantly as when we parted in London.

  b.  used in familiar address in phrases, my dear fellow, my good fellow (the latter now implying a tone of remonstrance or censure), old fellow.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xx. 139. I’ll tell you how it is, my dear fellow.

  c.  In some dialects, and in unceremonious colloquial speech (esp. among young men), used without adj. as the ordinary equivalent for ‘man.’ A fellow: often = ‘one,’ ‘anybody,’ vaguely indicating the speaker himself.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., ix. (1889), 80. They don’t deny themselves the pleasure of looking at a fellow as if he were a Turk, because he likes St. Paul’s better than Westminster Abbey.

1865.  H. Kingsley, Hillyars & B., xii. The names of the fellows who got bailed up by young Hillyar.

  d.  applied by schoolboys to themselves and each other.

  (Possibly orig. a use of sense 6; not now so apprehended.)

c. 1838.  in Stanley, Arnold’s Life & Corr., I. 146. ‘He calls us fellows,’ was the astonished expression of the boys when, soon after his first coming, they heard him speak of them by the familiar name in use among themselves.

1844.  J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xv. One of our ‘old fellows,’ as we used to call those who had left school.

Mod.  After morning school some of our fellows went for a spin.

  e.  jocularly applied to an animal or a thing.

1816.  Scott, Antiq., xxi. Mony a gudewife’s been wondering what for the red cock didna craw her up in the morning, when he’s been roasting, puir fallow, in this dark hole. Ibid. (1828), F. M. Perth, ii. This fellow (laying his hand on his purse) … was somewhat lank and low in condition.

  10.  † a. Used as the customary title of address to a servant or other person of humble station. Obs.

  In 14th c. it implied polite condescension, = ‘comrade,’ ‘my friend’ (cf. mod-F. mon ami similarly used). In Shakspere’s time this notion had disappeared, but the word when addressed to a servant does not seem to have necessarily implied haughtiness or contempt, though its application to one not greatly inferior was a gross insult (cf. c).

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 275. Þemperour … clepud to him þe couherde & curteysly seide; now telle me, felawe … sei þou euer þemperour?

c. 1477.  Caxton, Jason, 23. Vaissale or felawe [orig. vassal] thou hast done me now the most grettest dishonour the euer happened or came to me.

15[?].  King & Hermit, 327, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 25.

1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, IV. i. 103.

  † b.  One of the common people. Obs.

c. 1430.  Freemasonry, 99.

1483.  Caxton, G. de la Tour, L iv b. These wordes are but sport and esbatement of lordes and of felawes in a langage moche comyn.

  c.  contemptuously. A person of no esteem or worth.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxiv. 3. Þis felowe þat we with folye fande.

1535.  Coverdale, Micah ii. 12. A fleshly felowe and a preacher of lyes.

c. 1570.  Sempill Ballates, x. (1872), 54.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 325.

c. 1660.  South, Serm. John vii. 17, Serm. 1715, I. 229. Fellows that set up for Messias’s.

1734.  Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 203.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, XVII. ii. You … have so disdainfully called him fellow.

a. 1776.  Lizie Wan, vii. in Child, Ballads, II. li. (1884), 448/2.

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. xiii. This is some vile conspiracy of your own, fellow.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xv. ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Tupman, ‘you’re a fellow.’

1884.  D. Pae, Eustace, 68. ‘The fellow’s drunk,’ ejaculated Randolph.

  II.  attrib. and Comb.

  11.  appositively (quasi-adj.). Prefixed to sbs., forming an unlimited number of quasi-compounds (in which the use of the hyphen is optional). Equivalent to the earlier EVEN- Comb. 2, and to CO-, JOINT a.

  No instances of this use are found in our material earlier than Tindale and Coverdale 1534–5; felow-bacheler is printed in Gower, Conf., III. 292, but the best MSS. have felon or feloun; Palsgrave, 1530, has felow man, woman, but here the second word is only added for distinction. Cf. quot. c. 1400 in a.

  a.  Denoting a person or thing that agrees with another in belonging to the designated class, as in fellow-angel, -apostle, -being, -bishop, -Christian, -fault, -man, -planet, -sinner, -worm; FELLOW-CREATURE.

1625.  Quarles, Fun. Eleg., vii.

1647.  Sanderson, Serm., II. 218. By this infusion (to give you one instance) he taught Judas to be so much wiser (as the world accounteth wisdom, and according to the notion wherein we now speak of it) than his *fellow-Apostles.

1810.  J. Conder, Reverie, in Associate Minstrels, 9*. Can I trust a *fellow-being?

1864.  Burton, Scot Abr., I. iii. 149. A fat philosopher … totally innocent of the death of a fellow-being.

[c. 1400.  An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 59. Bernard seiþ to pope Eugeni, Þi *felawis bischops lere þei at þe to haue, etc.]

1565.  Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), 176. The true Councels, which we haue receiued from our holy fellow-bishop Cyrillus of Alexandria.

1642.  Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus, Wks. (1847), 82/2. To proclaim a croisade against his *fellow-christian.

1853.  Landor, Last Fruit, 131. A fellow Christian … enjoying a secret pleasure in saying unpleasant things.

1600.  Shaks., As You Like It, III. ii. 373. Euerie one fault seeming monstrous, til his *fellow-fault came to match it.

1756.  Franklin, Let., Wks. 1887, II. 460. These kindnesses from men I can only therefore return on their *fellow-men; and I can only show my gratitude for those mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other children and my brethren.

1813.  Byron, Giaour, 329.

1684.  T. Burnet, The Theory of the Earth, I. 194. Let us therefore suppose the Earth, with the rest of its *fellow Planets, to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., VI. § 16. Man, who has not such Right over his Fellow-Creatures, who is himself a *Fellow-sinner with them, who is liable to Error as well as Passion, whose Views are imperfect, who is governed more by Prejudice than the Truth of Things, may not improbably deceive himself, when he sets up for a Judge of the Proceedings of the holy, omniscient, impassive Creator and Governor of all Things.

1860.  Hook, Lives Abps. (1869), II. ii. 111. Books may present difficulties which must be overcome; but they are not quarrelsome and difficult to please as we find men to be, when, sinful men ourselves, we have to labour among our fellow-sinners.

1689.  C. Mather, Mem. Prov., 24. The Devils are seldome able to hurt us … without a Commission from some of our *fellow-worms.

1719.  Watts, Hymns, II. xlvi.

  b.  Denoting a person or (occasionally) a thing that is associated with another in companionship or cooperation in what the sb. implies, as fellow-boarder, -captive, -cause, -clerk, -communicant, -emigrant, -guest, -labourer, -lodger, -passenger, -prisoner, -student, -sufferer, -traveller, -worker, -workman. Also FELLOW-SOLDIER.

1871.  Motley, Lett. to Lady W. Russell, in Corr. (1889), II. x. 325. He [Charles Villiers] is a *fellow-boarder with your son and daughter at the Huis Ten Bosch.

a. 1569.  Kingsmill, A Conference conteyning a Conflict had with Satan (1578), 36. Hee is a *fellow-captive with Paul.

1749.  Johnson, Irene, I. i.

1821.  Byron, Juan, IV. lxxx. He saw some fellow captives.

1581.  W. Clarke, in Confer., IV. (1584), Ff iv b. It should bee a *fellowe cause in our iustification with Christes righteousnes.

1886.  T. Hopkins, ’Twixt Love & Duty, xii. He did not grudge a holiday to his *fellow-clerks.

1670.  Devout Commun. (1688), 122. Interceding with him for … our *fellow-communicants.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 534. He … found among his *fellow emigrants men ready to listen to his evil counsels.

1591.  Percivall, Sp. Dict., Comensal, a *fellow guest.

1709.  Shaftesb., Moralists, II. § 2. 71. I … being so violently decry’d by my two Fellow Guests.

1625.  Ussher, Answ. Jesuit, 35. The word of God which by some of the Apostles was set downe in writing, was both by themselves and others of their *fellow-labourers delivered by word of mouth.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Quakers Serm., Wks. 1730, I. 105. Our dear brother and fellow-labourer hath gone a little astray, in the opinion of the Vulgar and Prophane.

1832.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. V. (1863), 318. Men … persuading their fellow-labourers to join them at every farm they visited.

1678.  Dryden, Limberham, II. Wks. (1883), VI. 49. This is Mr. Woodall, your new *fellow-lodger.

1755.  Smollett, Quix. (1803), II. 193. He was more and more astonished at what he saw and heard, though he could easily perceive that his fellow lodgers were persons of rank and consequence: but the mein, visage, and figure of Don Quixote baffled all his conjectures.

1879.  Howells, L. Aroostook, I. vi. One never can know what one’s *fellow-passengers are going to be.

1611.  Bible, Rom. xvi. 7. Salute Andronicus and Iunia my kinsmen and my *fellow prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 61. I then asked him whether he thought his two fellow-prisoners might be trusted upon the same conditions.

1875.  Tennyson, Q. Mary, I. iv.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 177. I pray thee, doe not mock me, *fellowstudent.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 526, 3 Nov., ¶ 3. Fellow-templars, fellow-students.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 186. A comet discovered a few days previously by a former fellow student.

1687.  Dryden, Hind & P., I. 563.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 182. He [Jacques Rousseau] left a widow, but bequeathed most of what he had to his fellow-sufferers the Refugees.

1665.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 125. Elpenor his *fellow-traveller being dead.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 58, 7 May, ¶ 12. The Impatience of my Friends and Fellow-Travellers.

1829.  Lytton, Devereux, IV. viii. On entering Paris, my veteran fellow-traveller took leave of me, and I proceeded to my hotel.

1611.  Bible, Col. iv. 11. These … are my *fellowworkers vnto the kingdome of God.

1660.  Jer. Taylor, Worthy Commun., Introd. 7. Fellow-workers with God in the laboratories of salvation.

1535.  Coverdale, Acts xix. 25. The *feloweworkmen of the same occupacion.

1646.  H. Lawrence, Of Our Communion and Warre with Angels, 24. God useth the Angells for their good and honour, whom hee vouchsafeth to use as fellow-workemen with himselfe and his son.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 141, Protagoras. He and his fellow-workmen have taught them to the best of their ability.

  c.  (with sb. of relative signification.) Denoting a person or thing that stands in the designated relation to the same object as another, as in fellow-burgess, -burgher, -disciple, -member, -servant, -townsman, -tribesman; † fellow-brother, a member of the same brotherhood; fellow-collegian, † -collegiate, a member of the same college; fellow-craftsman, one of the same craft; fellow-subject, a subject of the same sovereign. Also FELLOW-CITIZEN, -COUNTRYMAN, -HEIR.

a. 1575.  Abp. Parker, Corresp. (1853), 425. You may note many vanities in my doings, but I thought it not against my profession to express my times, and give some testimony of my *fellow-brothers, of such of my coat as were in place in her Majesty’s reign, and when I was thus placed.

1638.  Sanderson, Serm., II. 115. We ought therefore so to behave our selves in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, as becometh fellow-brethren that are descended from the same Father, and fellow-servants that live under the same Master.

1638.  Drumm. of Hawth., Irene, Wks. (1711), 164. Were it not for thee, the Citizen instead of his magnificent Porches and Marble Walks, with his Children and Beloved, should be driven to measure the Wayless Paths of his ruined Country, and wander amongst the Terrors of his slaughter’d Acquaintances and *Fellow-Burgesses.

1835.  W. Irving, A Tour on the Prairies, xxxii. Others, still more bold, assembled in little knots in the streets and public places, as if to discuss the recent outrages offered to the commonwealth, and the atrocious murders of their *fellow-burghers.

1791.  Boswell, Johnson, an. 1729. I do not find that he formed any close intimacies with his *fellow collegians.

1667–9.  Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 318 He … talks of authors as familiarly as his *fellow-collegiates.

1836.  H. Rogers, J. Howe, vi. (1863), 160. He had been an intimate friend and fellow-collegiate of Howe’s, for which reason he also affixed only his initials to the title-page.

1856.  R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. 65. The tender conscience and the pensive temperament of the village youth shrank from the dissolute and riotous companionship of his *fellow-craftsmen.

1611.  Bible, John xi. 16. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, vnto his *fellow disciples, Let vs also goe, that we may die with him.

1852.  H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith (1855), 17. [He] has almost battered out the brains of a fellow disciple.

1640.  Sanderson, Serm., 148. Though they be our *fellow-members, yet have we little fellow-feeling of their griefs.

1863.  A. B. Grosart, Small Sins (ed. 2), 48. It may seem a ‘small sin’ to sit down at the Table of the Lord with a divided heart toward some fellow-member and fellow-communicant.

1534.  Tindale, Col. iv. 7. The deare brother Tichicos shall tell you off all my busynes, which is a faythfull minister and *felowe servaunt in the lorde.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., II. iv. 105.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VIII. 225.

1713.  Steele, Englishman, No. 1, 6 Oct., 9. You see, my Lord, he treats us Senators like his Fellow-Servants.

1648.  E. Symmons, Vind. Chas. I., 40. Can any innocent disposition upon the earth, possibly give more satisfaction to a perverse, froward and guilty Enemy, then is here offered to these men, by a most Gracious, and Honest King; onely to procure life and tranquility to his poore people, who are most mercilesly butchered, and abused by their fellow-subjects?

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 125, 24 July, ¶ 8. We should not any longer regard our Fellow-Subjects as Whigs or Tories, but should make the man of merit our friend, and the villain our enemy.

1876.  Bancroft, Hist. U.S., III. xi. 451. That from Rhode Island, offered by Sherwood, its faithful agent, claimed by their charter, under a royal promise, equal rights with their fellow-subjects in Great Britain, and insisted that the colony had faithfully kept their part of the compact; but it was as little heeded as the rest.

1846.  Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, I. 237/1. I praised his exploits in the enthusiasm of youth and poetry; either of which is sufficient excuse for many errors; and both together may extort somewhat more than pardon, when valour in a *fellow-townsman is the exciter of our praise.

1853.  Hickie, trans. Aristoph. (1872), II. 422. Call your *fellow-tribesmen to your aid, being pommeled.

1867.  O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, xiii. (1891), 158. His descriptions of the future which was in store for the great bulk of his … *fellow-worldsmen.

  d.  Sometimes prefixed pleonastically to sbs. which themselves imply companionship or participation. Now rare.

1552.  Huloet, Fellow-companion, comes.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 19. I would bee glad to receiue some instruction from my fellow partner.

1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. III., Wks. (1711), 47. He had only for his Fellow-companions Sstrologers and Sooth-sayers, whom, as Occasion served, he preferred to Chruch-benfices and Bishopricks.

1760.  Sterne, Serm. (1773), I. 127. She looked upon him as a fellow-partner.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1883), 63. Seeing in England more of my fellow-compatriots than ever before.

  12.  rarely attrib. with the sense: Equal, befitting an equal.

1638.  Ford, Fancies, IV. ii.

  13.  Comb. with vbl. sbs., agent-nouns, and pples., imitating L. words with co(m-, con-. Only in a few words originating in 16–17th c., as † fellow-bordering ppl. a. (= L. confinis), conterminous, neighboring; fellow-helper (= L. coadjutor), one who helps in the way of cooperation; † fellow-inspired, endowed with a like gift of inspiration; † fellow-knower (= L. conscius sb.), one who is privy to (a secret); so † fellow-knowing ppl. a.; † fellow-yoked pple., mutually yoked. Also FELLOW-FEELING.

a. 1628.  F. Greville, Sidney (1652), 28. [This Emperor] … got credit with his *fellow-bordering Princes, through the common Councell, or participation of fear.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Esdras vii. 1. The other landlordes with their companyons … were *felow helpers with the olde rulers of the Iewes.

1611.  Bible, 2 Cor. viii. 23. He is my partner and fellow helper.

1685.  H. More, Illustration, 342. This Angel and John (as also others of his quality) were *fellow-inspired Souls, both endued with the Spirit of Prophecy, which is the Testimony of Jesus.

1662.  J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 103. Not that I am conscious a *fellow-knower of, or a searcher into divine Counsel. Ibid., 88. The same God might be a conscious or *fellow-knowing revenger and Judge of our sin.

1620.  Middleton & Rowley, World Tost at Tennis, 571. Wks. 1886, VII. 177. I’ll not be *fellow-yok’d with death.