"fellow" = "A black man"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Apr 6 22:14:59 UTC 2011


Wilson's post crossed mine.  But on the reasoning of the OED's definition,
"fellow" in Wilson's "white fellow" should be defined as "a white man."

My guess is that Bartlett made a poor editorial decision that has simply
been carried forward and elaborated on.

JL

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 6:09 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "fellow" = "A black man"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 8:16 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> > Isn't it the case that in the South, since the early-20th century at
> least, "fellow" has been more common in the sense of 'generic male' than in
> other regions, where "guy" is prevalent?
> >
>
> "Seem like to me," as my mother would say. I learned the word from the
> gangster movies of the 'Forties. In real life in Saint Louis, "stud"
> replaced "fellow" amongst us chirren, but not amongst the adults, who,
> after a couple of dekkids, began to use "guy," except in the
> pretty-much fixed collocations, "colored fellow"/"white fellow."
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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