Oddfellow

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A member of a friendly society that offers mutual aid, charity and social fellowship to its members
2. Someone who belongs to a charitable fraternal order founded to provide support and brotherhood among its members
3. A person enrolled in a benevolent fraternal organization that pools resources to help members in need

Etymology: The Oddfellows are a real fraternal society, and the word's odd-looking form is simply a literal combination. "Odd" once meant something close to "unpaired" or "extra," so an oddfellow was a fellow who did not belong to a set pair or standard group. The name suggests the society's founders saw their members as a separate, supplementary company beside ordinary workers and tradesmen, rather than as oddities in the modern sense. The sense of mutual aid came later, as the fraternity's purpose took shape. Members paid into a common fund, and that pool was used to support fellow members who fell sick, lost work, or died, so the word came to name a person bound to others in that practical, reciprocal care.