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A.Word.A.Day--hail-fellow-well-met

hail-fellow-well-met (HAYL-feloe-wel-met) adjective

Heartily friendly and congenial.

[From the obsolete greeting hail, fellow!.]

"Mateship, described by one observer as a sort of male marriage, has been extended into a social value that stresses openness and trust. It is an exclusively male institution that produces a general sense of hail-fellow-well-met camaraderie and the assumption that any man is to be taken at face value until proved otherwise." Donald P. Whitaker, Australia: Chapter 5A. Social Structure, Countries of the World, 1 Jan 1991.

This week's theme: idioms.

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