fellah means A peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
fellah is pronounced /ˈfɛlə/.
Why “fellah” is a great word
FELLAH — [Noun] A peasant, farmer, or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. From Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ, 'peasant, plowman'), from the root ف-ل-ح (f-l-ḥ) meaning 'to plow, till the soil,' itself from Classical Syriac ܦܠܚܐ ('worker, peasant'). Attested in English since 1743. Unlike "peasant"—a general term for a poor farmer—or "serf"—which implies feudal bondage—a fellah is a free cultivator defined by the specific social ecology of the Arab world. He is the patient silhouette against a sky hazed with dust at dawn; the calloused hands working the same patch of earth for generations; the quiet, enduring substrate of empires and republics alike—a figure whose identity is written not in laws, but in the ancient, unbroken covenant between a man, his hands, and the unyielding land he coaxes to life.
noun
- A peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa.“The Egyptian fellaheen, in many of their ways and customs, reproduce almost exactly their ancient prototypes. They use the same ploughs and the same shadoofs for raising water.”