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fellah

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed 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 November 30, Judah L. Kaufman, quotee, “BRITISH LABOR HAILS PALESTINE WORKERS; […]”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 December 2025:
      The real problem of the Arabian population in Palestine is how to get rid of the economic domination and control by approximately 100 families of effendi who now own the land, keeping the fellaheen in obscurity and ignorance and subjecting them to merciless exploitation.
    • 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.
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 67:
      Lizards, reputed to be of hgih aphrodisiac potency, used to be brought by Egyptian fellahin to Cairo[.]
    • 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.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Representing an eye dialect pronunciation of fellow.

Noun

fellah (plural fellahs)

  1. Alternative spelling of fella.
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French

Noun

fellah m (plural fellahs)

  1. fellah (peasant or farmer)

Further reading

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

Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nb

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

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

  1. a fellah

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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
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