underfellow

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ fellow.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

underfellow (plural underfellows)

1. (archaic) An underling.
2. (archaic) A mean, low fellow.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

     the carried him some miles thence, to a house of a principal officer of that country; who, with no more civility, though with much more business, than those under-fellows had showed

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “underfellow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)