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Word "Fella" will indicate the gender "Male". Can anyone say the word like "fella" for the gender "female"?.

Kalyana Kumar A
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  • OP is flooding the site with sexist questions which show no research effort. However the question can be improved by adding more context leading up to the word. –  Sep 14 '13 at 17:46

2 Answers2

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The closest equivalent is gal, as in Guys and gals.

Be careful how you use it however, it can be perceived as patronizing.

Other options are:

  • lass (chiefly British I believe), meaning young girl. Again, can be badly received if addressing a grown woman you don't know.
  • gel, again chiefly British and I doubt anyone under 50 or so would use it.
  • fem, not very common.
terdon
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  • Male's opposite gender will be Female like wise what is the word for "Fella"? – Kalyana Kumar A Sep 14 '13 at 17:42
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    @KalyanaKumarA sorry, I don't understand what you mean. – terdon Sep 14 '13 at 17:42
  • http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fella This link will show you informal term for "Male" as like as I want informal term for "Female". – Kalyana Kumar A Sep 14 '13 at 17:46
  • Fellas, it may be time to refer the O.P. to [ell.SE]. This question should NOT be reposted over there. However, that might be a better place to ask future questions. – J.R. Sep 14 '13 at 17:49
  • @J.R. fair enough. – terdon Sep 14 '13 at 17:49
  • @Kalyana: For most Anglophones, "fella/fellow" is hopelessly dated slang. I've no idea if there was anything that could meaningfully be called a "female equivalent" back when it was commonly used, but you have to bear in mind that "publically-acknowledged" gender distinctions in language were very different in earlier societies. – FumbleFingers Sep 14 '13 at 17:50
  • I think ladies could work, too. Granted, ladies is usually considered a counterpart to gentlemen, but it's not too hard to imagine a teacher trying to get a class to quiet down, beginning with: "Fellas, ladies, please, quiet down." – J.R. Sep 14 '13 at 17:51
  • @J.R. I think you're dating yourself, lack of grey hair notwithstanding :) – terdon Sep 14 '13 at 17:53
  • I would think that ‘lass’ was even more typically Irish than British, no? And ‘fem’ is quite common, but certainly not as a female equivalent of ‘fella’—more as an after-all-male equivalent of ‘effeminate or flamboyant fella’! – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 14 '13 at 17:53
  • I'd use ladies before I used lasses, gels or fems. I might opt for gals ahead of ladies, though. – J.R. Sep 14 '13 at 17:54
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    @J.R., I find it much easier to imagine a teacher nowadays beginning with, “All right, now shut it, you little twerps!” ;-þ – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 14 '13 at 17:54
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Northern Ireland counts as Britain and anyway, it is very common in Scotland and quite common in the north of England in general. And how about shut it you little twerps and twerpettes? ;) As for fem it is actually quite often used as a neutral term for women in science fiction literature. – terdon Sep 14 '13 at 17:55
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Fellow, the original word, has three main meanings:

  1. A male person in general - I saw a fellow waiting by the car.
  2. One of a pair - I found one shoe but could not find its fellow.
  3. A member of a group of people who have shared interests or activities, especially formal membership - She was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In this instance it is gender neutral.

You would normally only use fella as a short form of Number 1. I assume you are looking for a female equivalent of this usage.

Some male terms have obvious female 'opposites':

Guy - gal
Lad - lass
Boy - girl
Son - daughter
Husband - wife

However there are many words for males and females which do not match up, and this is usually because of the different roles men and women have held thoughout history and in different cultures. For instance, maid, or maiden, is an old-fashioned word meaning an unmarried woman who is assumed to be a virgin (because sex for women outside of marriage has been forbidden). There is no equivalent male word.

Fellow is from Old Norse and is to do with cattle trading. It's therefore a male-dominated word with no female equivalent. You must therefore choose one of the many words which apply to women, and the appropriateness of your choice would depend on context.

Mynamite
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