Other forms: fellowships
A fellowship is funded status given to a researcher at a university. Win a fellowship, a research fellowship, a three-year fellowship.
It pays somebody to do their own research rather than to teach, and fellowships are among the most competitive things in academic life. A Fellow of a learned society is an elected honour rather than a job. The older sense is companionship: the fellowship of the group, good fellowship — which is where Tolkien's title comes from. Note fellow, which in Cambridge and Oxford colleges is a specific office.
1nounfellowshipFunded status given to a researcher at a university.
“She won a research fellowship at Oxford to study ancient languages.”
2nouncompanionshipCompanionship among a group.
“There was a real fellowship among those nine for about a decade.”
fellowship is a funded post, or companionship.
Old Norse felagi meant a business partner — literally somebody who lays money together with you, from fé, cattle or property. A fellow was a fellow investor, and every academic and friendly sense descends from a commercial one.
Old Norse
félagskapr
Middle English
felowschipe
English, today
fellowship
Built from
From Middle English felowschipe, felawshipe, felaȝschyp, equivalent to fellow + ship; or perhaps adapted from Old Norse félagskapr, félagsskapr (“fellowship”). Compare Icelandic félagsskapur (“companionship, company, community”), Danish fællesskab (“fellowship”), Norwegian fellesskap (“fellowship”), and gmq-osw fælaghskap (“fellowship”)
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA