fellah

[fel-uh]

noun, plural fel·lahs, Arabic fel·la·hin, fel·la·heen [fel-uh-heen] /ˌfɛl əˈhin/.

a native peasant or laborer in Egypt, Syria, etc.

Origin of fellah

First recorded in 1735–45, fellah is from the Arabic word fallāḥ peasant

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fellahin

Historical Examples of fellahin

The lot of the Egyptian fellahin or peasants has never been an enviable one.
Mystics and Saints of Islam
Claud Field
The black soldier was of a very different type from the fellahin.
The River War
Winston S. Churchill
The measure by which the Fellahin divide their land is the feddn.
The English Village Community
Frederic Seebohm
The fellahin at that time were in terrible straits of poverty.
Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
The regeneration of the fellahin army dates from that epidemic.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1
Various

British Dictionary definitions for fellahin

fellah

noun plural fellahs, fellahin or fellaheen (ˌfɛləˈhiːn)

a peasant in Arab countries

Word Origin for fellah

C18: from Arabic, dialect variant of fallāh, from falaha to cultivate

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fellahin

1743, plural of Arabic fallah (see fellah).

fellah

"Egyptian peasant," 1743, from Arabic fallah "plowman," from falaha "to till the soil."