What Marriage Really Is

. . . as according to the Norse.

As promised yesterday, today’s word-of-the-day is “fellow,” since the Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories was so kind as to refer me to this word when I looked up “companion.”

According to this book, “fellow” is descended from the Old Norse word for partner, félagi. Literally, this word means “fee-layer.” The plural, félagar, “were hose who laid together their property (fee) for some common purpose.” It goes on to say that even marriage was called a félag, or “fee-laying.”

Old English stole this word and changed it to féolaga; it has since changed to “fellow.”

Moral of this story? All you need for a marriage is to be sharing property (which makes apartment buildings seem pretty odd). Also, it is technically incorrect to call a boyfriend one’s “fellow” if one is not living with him.