"fellow" = "A black man"

[Victor Steinbok]

I didn't know the first two editions of the OED were so stellar on
colonial slang. It would not surprise me that there were wrong on that
definition entirely. It would also not surprise me if they simply picked
two lame examples. I don't think the OED citations should settle the
existential question--but that's just /my/ opinion.

     VS-)

On 4/5/2011 8:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ...
> At best, the connotations of "fellow" in the appropriate era may have been a
> little more heavily weighted toward black men than, say, those of "chap,"
> but I'd be hard put to defend *defining* "fellow" as a black man. OED offers
> only two citations. Neither of them compels the definition.
>
> JL

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