fellow (n./adj.)

fellow is often considered to be used inclusively; women receiving academic fellowships are called fellows, for example, and among its dictionary definitions are many inclusive concepts. However, if you say, "Today I saw a fellow throwing away $100 bills," there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the distributor of largesse was a man. The folksy "fella/feller" is also incontestably masculine. It has a history of being used for women: in 1932, for example, Gertrude Atherton (Adventures of a Novelist ) wrote, "She may have lost her beauty and allure, but she was a good fellow, mixed cocktails for them, and was witty and amusing." If you want a substitute for the noun, consider person, partner, colleague, co-worker, companion, counterpart, associate, ally, comrade, friend, acquaintance, peer. For the adjective, use similar, alike, analogous, comparable, parallel, matching, corresponding, coinciding, like, something like, other, related, akin, equal, equivalent, associate(d), united, connected. For the academic "fellow," you can sometimes use scholar, recipient, postgraduate student.