Dictionary

fellah en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɛlə/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ, “peasant”), from Classical Syriac ܦܠܚܐ (“worker; peasant”). Attested since 1743.

Meanings

1. A peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa.
   • 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. 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 39:
   • 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
   • 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. 1955, Paul Bowles, The Spider's House:
   • 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. 1920, Archibald Sayce, “Cairene and Upper Egyptian Folk-Lore” in Folk-Lore 31 p. 176
   • The Egyptian fellaheen, in many of their ways and customs, reproduce almost exactly their ancient prototypes. They use the same ploughs and the same shadoofs for raising water. 1893 October, C[lement] B[oulton] Roylance Kent, “Life in Modern Egypt”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume CCLXXV, number 1954, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 353:
   • 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 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 Dec 2025:
   • Lizards, reputed to be of hgih aphrodisiac potency, used to be brought by Egyptian fellahin to Cairo[.] 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 67:
   • It has the prophetic vision. Fuit Ilium! The sack of windy Troy. Kingdoms of this world. The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today. 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
   • 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. 1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine:

Forms

Deriveds

fellahdom

Translations (15)

vo jifälag (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · vo hifälagef (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · ru феллах (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · pl fellach (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · fr fellah (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · vo fälag (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · eo kamparano (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · vo fälagef (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · de Fellache (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · cmn 費拉 /费拉 (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · vo jifälagef (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · mk фе́лах (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · vo hifälag (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · it fellah (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer) · de Fellachin (peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer)

fellah en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɛlə/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Representing an eye dialect pronunciation of fellow.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative spelling of fella.
   alt of fella

Forms