FELLOW  , properly and by origin a partner or

associate, hence a companion, comrade or mate, as in " fellow-man," " fellow-countryman," &c . The word from the 15th century has also been applied, generally and colloquially, to any male person, often in a contemptuous or pitying sense . The Old English feolage meant a partner in a business, i.e. one who lays (lag) money or property (feoh, fee) together for a common purpose . The word was, therefore, the natural equivalent for socius, a member of the foundation of an incorporated college, as Eton, or a college at a university . In the earlier history of universities both the senior and junior members of a college were known as " scholars," but later, as now, " scholar " was restricted to those members of the foundation still in statu pupillari, and " fellow " to those senior graduate members who have been elected to the foundation by the corporate body, sharing in the government and receiving a fixed emolument out of the revenues of the college . It is in this sense that " fellow " is used at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and Trinity, Dublin . At these universities the college teaching is performed by those fellows who are also " tutors." At other universities the term is applied to the members of the governing body or to the holders of certain sums of money for a fixed number of years to be devoted to special study or research . By analogy the word is also used of the members of various learned societies and institutions .