"fellow" = "A black man"

[Jonathan Lighter]

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
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> 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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