[f. FELLOW sb. + -SHIP.] Primarily, the condition or quality of being a FELLOW, in various senses.
1. † a. Partnership; membership of a society. Also, in political sense, alliance. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Macc. viii. 17. He sente hem to Rome, for to ordeyne with hem frendship and felawship.
1592. West, 1st Pt. Symbol., § 26 C. There may be partnership or fellowship amongst the persons contracting.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 289. Would not this Sir … get me a Fellowship in crie of Players?
1623. Bingham, Xenophon, 87. They would enter into fellowship of warre with the Grecians.
b. Participation, sharing (in an action, condition, etc.); ‘something in common,’ community of interest, sentiment, nature, etc.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 185. Ich nabbe no mong, ne felawscipe, ne priuete, wiþ þe world.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. vi. 14. What felowschip of liȝt to derkenessis?
1535. Coverdale, Acts i. 17. He … had opteyned the felashippe of this mynistracion.
1671. Milton, P. R., I. 400.
| I feel by proof, | |
| That fellowship in pain divides not smart, | |
| Nor lightens aught each mans peculiar load. |
1714. Swift, Epist. Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 529. I congratulate with England for joining with us here in the fellowship of slavery.
1869. W. P. Mackay, Grace & Truth (1875), 244. It is only now that we [Christians] can have fellowship with Him [Christ] in His service as the rejected of earth.
2. Companionship, company, society; an instance of this. Also, to bear (a person) fellowship; to have, hold, † fall in, fellowship with (a person).
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues (1888), 41. Ðas ȝewerȝede gaste[s] felauscipe fram e[u]wȝ driuen.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 160. Vor þi fleih sein Johan þe feolauschipe of fule men.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12568 (Cott.). All þai felascip him bar.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, vi. 7. I dwelled lange in synn & in felaghschip of ill men.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 155. For hue ys fayne of þy felaushep.
1449[?]. M. Paston, in Paston Lett., I. 83. Purry felle in felaschepe with Willyum Hasard at Querles.
c. 1450. Merlin, 218. The feliship of so worthi men is not to be refused.
1484. Caxton, Æsop, I. vi. The poure ought not to hold felauship with the myghty.
1535. Coverdale, Wisd. viii. 16. Hir felashipe hath no tediousnesse, but myrth & ioye.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. iii. 174.
| This Boy that cannot tell what he would haue, | |
| But kneeles, and holds vp hands for fellowship. |
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. i. § 1. God having designed Man for a sociable Creature, made him not only with an inclination, and under a necessity to have fellowship with those of his own kind; but furnished him also with Language, which was to be the great Instrument, and common Tye of Society.
1814. Cary, Dante’s Parad., VIII. 121.
| Were it worse for man, | |
| If he lived not in fellowship on earth? |
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 404. The least respectable members of that party renounced fellowship with him.
transf. 1578. J. Banister, The Historie of Man, V. 70. The fift veyne, being not depriued of the felowshyp of an Arterie.
† b. collect. Habitual companions; = COMPANY 4 b. Obs.
14[?]. Tundale’s Vis., 183.
| This his thi felyschyp thou caytyff | |
| That thou chase to the in thi lyffe. |
1548. Forrest, Pleas. Poesye, 90.
| They shull pluck too their societee, | |
| Feloshippe that neuer will after goode bee. |
† 3. Communication, dealing, intercourse. Obs.
1555. Watreman, Fardle Facions, II. ix. 202. As he iudgeth theim … by his eye … without further trade or feloweshippe betwixte theim.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. i. 121.
| I am old my Lords, | |
| And all the Fellowship I hold now with him | |
| Is onely my Obedience. |
b. Mutual intercourse, esp. spiritual; intimate personal converse; = COMMUNION 2 a, b, c.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10399 (Cott.).
| Þir hundreth scepe þat þar was bun | |
| War don to dele al to þe comun, | |
| Bitakens felascip i-wiss, | |
| Of halus hei in heuen bliss. |
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 422. [Þei] were translate to felowschippe and dwellyng wiþ Gods.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 16.
| Than Cryst them ovyrtok, as his wyl was, | |
| And walkyd in felachep fforth with hem too. |
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 144 But fallowschip of ony hot thame sell.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 3. The end and reward of the studie [of Scripture being] fellowship with the Saints.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 14. To walk worthy of that transcendently majestic Being, who admits us to a fellowship with himself, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, ii. 23. Since John had last held visible fellowship with his Redeemer, that Redeemer had been enthroned amid the Hosannahs of Angels and the glories of Heaven.
† c. Sexual intercourse. More fully fleshly fellowship. Obs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 271. Þe fende … fallen in felaȝschyp with hem on folken wyse.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xvii. 77. When þai will hafe felischepe of men.
c. 1450. Merlin, 7. We be made for noon other cause, but for to to haue counfort and ioye of mannes felishep.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 191. Adam loued god wyth all the myghtes of hys harte, in that, after hys sonne had slayne hys brother, he fledde the flesshely felyshyp of hys wyfe.
4. = COMMUNION 3. To give the right hand of fellowship (after Gal. ii. 9): to acknowledge a person as entitled to communion; also transf.
In several Protestant denominations, a literal giving ‘the right hand of fellowship’ by some representative person is part of the ceremony of admitting a person to church-membership, and of the ordination or induction of a minister.
1382. Wyclif, Gal. ii. 9. James and Cephas … and John … ȝauen to me and Barnabas the riȝt hondis of felowschip.
1539. Cranmer, ibid., Ryght handes of that felouschippe.
1611. Bible, ibid., Right handes of fellowship.
a. 1649. Winthrop, New Eng. (1853), I. 215. The elder desired of the churches that … they would give them the right hand of fellowship.
1661. Bramhall, Just Vind., i. 3. They haue separated themselues first from their Common Mother, and from the fellowship of their own Sisters.
1809–10. Coleridge, The Friend (1865), 57. I will honour and hold forth the right hand of fellowship to every individual who is equally intolerant of that which he conceives such in me.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 64, The Republic, Introduction. He shall receive the right hand of fellowship.
5. The spirit of comradeship; friendliness. Good fellowship (parasynthetically): the temper and disposition of a ‘good fellow.’ So, bad fellowship. † Of fellowship: out of friendly feeling.
c. 1370. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 157.
| He … wher hym lyst, best felawship can | |
| To such as hym thinkith able to thrive. |
1462. Paston Lett., No. 445, II. 95. Hertely thankyng you … of the felyshipp that my cosyn your sonne shewid unto me.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 36. My beedys of jeet … for rememberaunce of old good felashipp.
1570. T. North, trans. The Morall Philosophie of Doni, II. (1888), 117. First of fellowship heare me but foure wordes.
1604. Jas. I., Counterbl. (Arb.), 111. It is become a point of good fellowship.
1670. Maynwaring, Vita Sana, vi. 67. Drink for necessity, not for bad fellowship.
1818. Shelley, Rosalind & Helen, 121.
| And the birds that in the fountain dip | |
| Their plumes, with fearless fellowship | |
| Above and round him wheel and hover. |
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, II. 86. The rival companies of Captain Bonneville and Mr. Campbell, thus fortuitously brought together, now prosecuted their journey in great good fellowship; forming a joint camp of about a hundred men.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola (1880), I. 2. There must still be fellowship and understanding for him among the inheritors of his birthplace.
† b. collect. Good fellowship = ‘good fellows.’
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VII. (1703), II. 225. Wilmot; who was very much in Prince Rupert’s disesteem, and not in any notable degree of favour with the King, but much belov’d by all the good fellowship of the Army.
6. A body of fellows or equals; a company. Now rare (arch.).
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 27/23. A felauȝschipe of quoynte Men.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14248 (Cott.).
| Jesus … was cummen into þat sted, | |
| Wit his felauscip þat he ledd. |
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1317. But feiþli his felachipe forþ wiþ him he hadde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 32. I was of hir felawschipe anon.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), ix. 34. Iosue and Caleph and þaire felyschepe come first.
1471. Sir J. Paston, in Lett., No. 675, III. 15. Sir Thomas Fulfforthe is goon owt off Sceyntewarye and a gret ffelaschyp ffettchyd hym.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. xliv. 10. Beholde all the felashippe of them must be brought to confucion.
1549. Bk. Com. Prayer, Te Deum. The goodly felowship [L. numerus] of the Prophetes.
1640. Yorke, Union Hon., 27. With his sonne the young Prince of Wales, and a very noble fellowship.
1742. Bailey, Fellowship, a Company.
1879. Butcher & Lang, Odyssey, 160. He went on his way, and with him two and twenty of my fellowship all weeping; and we were left behind making lament.
transf. 1827. Scott, Jrnl. (1890), I. 383. I am sorry when I think of the goodly fellowship of vessels which are now scattered on the ocean. There is the Duke of Wellington, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Melville, Mr. Peel, and I wot not who besides, all turned out of office or resigned!
† b. A body of armed men. Obs.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 5313.
| A … takeþ til hym scheld & sperre, | |
| Oþer felaschip ne takeþ he non. |
1467. Marg. Paston, in Lett., No. 576, II. 308. He … sendyth dayly aspies to understand what felesshep kepe the place.
c. 1500. Three Kings’ Sons, 97. Therfore toke he his feliship, & … went to releef his first company.
† c. The crew of a vessel. Obs.
1466. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 169. My lorde … ȝafe … to the felschepe of the Kervel.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. vi. 158. Thi schippis and fallowschip on the samyn wise.
d. In the Eucharistic service, the words cum omni militia cælestis exercitus have from an early date been rendered ‘with all the holy fellowship of heaven’; possibly with some allusion to 6 b.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 116. In honr of ihesu crist … and al the holy felichipe of heuen.
c. 1450. Bidding Prayer, iii., in Lay Folks Mass Bk., 71. All þe feir falychyp þat is in heuen.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 90. Al the heunly feloship from the earth such a monster abandon.
† e. An ordinary meal or entertainment for a company or household. Obs.
1494. Househ. Ord. (1790), 121. As for the Shrove Thursday at night, there longeth none estate to be kepte, but onely a fellowshippe, the Kinge and Queene to bee together, and all other estates.
7. A guild, corporation, company. Now rare. Fellowship of Porters: see 11 b.
1515. Sir R. Jernegan, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. vii. 13. The same passport maybe sent … to the Master of the fellowship.
1523. Act 14–15 Hen. VIII., c. 2. All wardens and maisters of felowshyppes of all and euery such handie craftes.
1560. Grant of City of Lond., 1 Feb., in Entick, London (1766), IV. 229, note. Being freemen of this city in the fellowship of the stationers.
1622. Misselden, Free Trade (ed. 2), 74. That … fellowship of the Merchants Adventurers of England.
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2799/4. Mr. Thomas Johnson Clerk to the Fellowship of Carmen.
1740. in Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. I. ix. 43. Any subject this realm hath a right to be made free of the said fellowship.
1819. E. Mackenzie, Hist. Newcastle (1827), 706, note. Waits, or Musicians, were an ancient fellowship.
transf. a. 1626. Bp. Andrewes, Serm. (1661), 700. A fellowship or Society, which is called the fellowship or corporation of the Gospell.
† b. collect. The members of a corporation or guild. Obs.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xi. 35 (Add. MS.). His felishippe put out his eyen.
1513. Act 5 Hen. VIII., c. 6. The Wardens and felisshippe of the crafte … of Surgeons enfraunchesid in the Citie of London.
1571. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 335. The Master Wardens … and Fellowship of the sayde occupation.
1649. Lawfulnesse Present Govt., 9. The Mayor of London and his Fellowship received him.
c. In wider sense: An association or union of any kind; also a brotherhood, fraternity.
1541. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 246/1. Wee beleeue thys article by fayth, that holy church is a communion or felowshyp of holy men.
1683. in Faithful Contendings (1780), 59. It was desired that every one of the fellowships that sends Commissioners … would be conscientious in choosing of them.
1775. Johnson, West. Islands, Wks. X. 424. Land is sometimes leased to a small fellowship, who live in a cluster of huts, called a Tenants-Town, and are bound jointly and separately for the payment of their rent.
1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. Ranke’s History of Servia, x. 191. As the war could not be carried on for its own sake, the peaceful fellowships in villages, Kneshines, and Nahis, on which everything depended, had also the right to a share in the conduct of public affairs.
1861. Mill, Utilit., v. 90. A person’s fitness to exist as one of the fellowship of human beings is tested and decided.
1883. O. B. Frothingham, in Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2381/2. The public got the intelligence of the Concord meeting, and gave to the little fellowship the name of the ‘Transcendental Club,’ why, it is not easy to discover; for a club it was not in any proper sense of the word.
1889. Lux Mundi, iv. (1890), 178. Building up a new cosmopolitan fellowship.
8. The position or dignity, or the emoluments, of a ‘fellow’ in a college, university, learned society, etc.
1536. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 42 § 1, in Oxf. & Camb. Enactm., 13. The said … Chauntries, free Chapelle Felowshippes, Scolershippes.
1631. T. Powell, Tom of All Trades, 12. In some Colledges, The Fellowship followes the Schollership of course, and as the one leaveth him, the other entertaines him.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., X. (1704), III. 56. They placed … such other of the same leven in the Fellowships.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 271. He had it in contemplation … to offer himself a candidate for a fellowship in the London College of Physicians.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., iv. 57. Of all the proposals of the Commission of 1850, none was more generally acceptable than the proposal to commute fellowships into scholarships—in other words, stipends to B.A.’s into stipends to undergraduates.
† b. collect. The body of ‘fellows’ in a college or university; the society constituted by the ‘fellows.’ Obs.
1480. Bury Wills (1850), 58. The seid maistr, presedent, or reuler, and phelaschep of the seid collage.
1567. in Gutch, Coll. Cur. (1781), II. 278. The said Richard Barber there shall call the whole fellowship then present within the College together.
1710. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), III. 53. Dr. Thomas Smith has added more to the Honour of the Society of Magdalen College, by what the World then read of him, than any one that ever entered that Fellowship.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 437. Adjudging and conferring degrees, which exclusively belongs to the fellowship as a learned faculty.
9. Arith. The process by which a partner’s share of gain or loss is determined in proportion to his share of the capital.
1561. Recorde, Gr. Artes, Y j. Thus you are … sufficiently instructed in the rule of felowship.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., I. xii. (ed. 7), 36. This is to bee wrought according to the rule of Fellowship thus, Multiply euery mans mony by his time.
1661. Hodder, Arithmetick, 148. The Rule of Fellowship without time.
1695. Alingham, Geom. Epit., 66. This Theo. helps to demonstrate the Rule of Fellowship.
1806. Hutton, Course Math., I. 120. Fellowship is either Single or Double.
1859. Barn. Smith, Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6), 508. Fellowship or Partnership.
10. pl. Short for Fellowship-porters. (See 11 b.)
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. vi. The Fellowships don’t want you at all.
11. attrib. and Comb. (sense 7), as fellowship-merchant; (sense 8) as fellowship-examination, -honour; also, fellowship-meeting, an association formed for the purpose of religious converse.
1866. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., I. 307. I shall be going up for my *fellowship examination.
1893. Daily News, 7 July, 11/3. The only American woman, holding the *fellowship honour of the Royal Geographical Society.
1679. T. Finlay, in Cloud of Witnesses (1810), 185. I bear my testimony to the *fellowship meetings of the Lord’s people.
1806. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., III. 176. All the fellowship-meetings of the parish of Cambuslang assembled.
1485. Act 1 Hen. VII., c 3 § 1. No proteccion be … allowed in the Courte before the … *Felishipp merchauntes of the Staple at Calais.
b. Fellowship porter, a member of the ‘fellowship’ of the Porters of Billingsgate, a guild having certain monopolies in the City of London; see quots.
There was also a Guild of Fellowship Porters in Edinburgh, who joined the Trone-men in 1694 (Walford, Hist. Gilds, 87).
1620. Draft Act Common Council, 5 Oct., in Acts & Rep. Com. Council (Guildhall Lib.), No. 4. That the Company and ffellowship of Porters of Billingsgate … shall … continue to be from henceforth one Company or Brotherhood.
1681. Delaune, State of London, 341. The Porters of London are of two sorts. 1. Ticket Porters…. 2. Fellowship Porters. To these belong the … landing, housing, carrying or recarrying all measurable Goods, as Corn, Salt, Coals, &c.
1854. Rep. Parl. Comm. Corporation of London, 23. The Fellowship of Porters, which exists as a separate body, created by an Act of Common Council. No person can be admitted as a Fellow of this body who is not free of the City of London.
1890. Daily News, 18 July, 7/2. The complainant is a fellowship porter.
