[In senses 1 and 3, see FELLOW sb. 11 b; in sense 2, see FELLOW sb. 7 a.]
† 1. A joint-partaker of anything along with others; esp. one who eats at the same table or shares in a common meal: see COMMONER sb. 5, 6.
1591. Florio, Second Fruites, 87. We haue been schoole fellowes, fellowe commoners at the vniuersitie, and wee are both of one age.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, Pref. They were ordained by God to live upon the same earth, and to be Fellow-commoners with Man.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xvii. 328. Their Generall was Fellow-commoner with them.
2. A privileged class of undergraduates in certain colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and at Trinity College, Dublin. See COMMONER 6.
So called from having the privilege of dining at the Fellows’ table, being thus ‘commoners with the Fellows.’ At Oxford the existence of a higher grade of undergraduates (in some colleges called ‘fellow-commoners,’ in the majority ‘gentlemen commoners’) is still recognized by the University Statutes, but the only house that has fellow-commoners on its books is Worcester College. At Cambridge, there were formerly fellow-commoners at most colleges, but the status is now nearly obsolete.
1637. Evelyn, Diary, 10 May. The Fellow Com’uners in Balliol were no more exempt from Exercise than the meanest scholars there.
1664. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 48. Sir John Skeffington, whom I knew at Magdalen College, a fellow-commoner.
1758. Johnson, The Idler, No. 33, 2 Dec., ¶ 5. Did not fall asleep till ten, a young Fellow-commoner being very noisy over my head.
1811. Byron, Th. Present State Greece, Wks. (1846), 766/2. He is intelligent and better educated than a fellow-commoner of most colleges.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xiii. The lads with gold and silver lace are sons of rich gentlemen, and called Fellow Commoners: they are privileged to feed better than the pensioners, and to have wine with their victuals.
1893. Dublin Univ. Cal., 15. Fellow-Commoners … have the privilege of dining at the Fellows’ Table.
b. Camb. Univ. slang. (See quots.) ? Obs.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Fellow commoner, an empty bottle, so called at the University at Cambridge, where fellow commoners are not in general considered as over full of learning.
1794. Gentl. Mag., Dec., 1084/2. A bottle decanted was … denominated a fellow commoner.
3. One who has a right of common with others.
1690. Locke, Govt., II. v. § 32. He cannot appropriate, he cannot inclose, without the consent of all his Fellow-Commoners, all Mankind.
