fellah

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛlə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlə

Etymology 1

From Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ, “peasant”), from Classical Syriac ܦܠܚܐ (“worker; peasant”). Attested since 1743.

Noun

fellah (plural fellahs or fellahin or fellaheen)

1. A peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa.
   • 1920, Archibald Sayce, “Cairene and Upper Egyptian Folk-Lore” in Folk-Lore 31 p. 176

     Religion long kept the two races, Arab and Egyptian, apart, and when eventually the Christian fellaḥ in the neighbourhood of Cairo had become Mohammedan, the Mohammedan Arab had become a townsman with a townsman’s sense of superiority over the country bumpkin.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:

     It has the prophetic vision. Fuit Ilium! The sack of windy Troy. Kingdoms of this world. The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today.

   • 1929-1930, H P Lovecraft, Fungi from Yuggoth

     And at the last from inner Egypt came // The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed

   • 1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine:

     Before her, seated half-crouching upon a wicker chair, was a big-breasted sphinx-faced fellah girl, with her skirt drawn up above her waist to expose some choice object of my friend's study.

   • 1955, Paul Bowles, The Spider's House:

     All of them were crudely caricatured scenes of life among Moslems: a schoolmaster, ruler in hand, presiding over a class of small boys, a fellah ploughing, a drunk being ordered out of a bar.

   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 39:

     It differed from the Ulema both in a more modernistic interpretation of Islamic dogma and in its social demands, which included the redistribution of land among the fellahs.

Translations

peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 費拉／费拉 (zh) (fèilā)

• French: fellah (fr) m
• German: Fellache (de) m, Fellachin (de) f
• Italian: fellah m
• Macedonian: фе́лах m (félah)
• Polish: fellach (pl) m
• Russian: феллах (ru) m (fellax)
• Volapük: (♂♀) fälag, (♂) hifälag, (♀) jifälag, (collective ♂♀) fälagef, (collective ♂) hifälagef, (collective ♀) jifälagef

Etymology 2

Representing an eye dialect pronunciation of fellow.

Noun

fellah (plural fellahs)

1. Alternative spelling of fella

French

Noun

fellah m (plural fellahs)

1. fellah (peasant or farmer)

Further reading

• “fellah”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ), from Aramaic פלחא / ܦܠܚܐ (pallāḥā, “worker; peasant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /felˈla/^*
• Rhymes: -a
• Hyphenation: fel‧làh

Noun

fellah m (invariable)

1. fellah

Further reading

• fellah in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ, “peasant”), from Classical Syriac ܦܠܚܐ (“worker; peasant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛl.lɑ/

Noun

fellah m (definite singular fellahen, indefinite plural fellaher, definite plural fellahene)

1. a fellah

References

• “fellah” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “fellah” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ, “peasant”), from Classical Syriac ܦܠܚܐ (“worker; peasant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛl.lɑ/

Noun

fellah m (definite singular fellahen, indefinite plural fellaher or fellahar, definite plural fellahene or fellahane)

1. a fellah

References

• “fellah” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “fellah”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016