hail-fellow

American  

[heyl-fel-oh, heyl-fel-oh] / ˈheɪlˈfɛl oʊ, ˈheɪlˌfɛl oʊ /

noun

1. Also hail fellow, hail-fellow well met a spiritedly sociable person; jolly companion.

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adjective

1. sociable; heartily genial.

   His hail-fellow manner helped him to advance in the sales force.

Etymology

Origin of hail-fellow

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

Then came “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” — all movies that leaned on the hail-fellow joshing of actors like Vince Vaughn, Seth Rogen and, yes, Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell, now basically playing themselves.

From New York Times • May 28, 2011

And he's not very good at faking the hail-fellow camaraderie that is part of American public life, either.

From Time • Jan. 21, 2010

But in the past 15 years hundreds of imperiled seafarers owe their lives to the hail-fellow flag that the fleet flies from its Johnny-on-the-spot main masts.

From Time Magazine Archive

His old hail-fellow familiarity with the press, his eagerness to confide his triumphs of backroom bargaining and artful maneuvering, was gone.

From Time Magazine Archive

And the "Gull's Horn Book," 1609, counsels, "At a new play you take up the twelvepenny room next the stage, because the lords and you may seem to be hail-fellow well met!"

From A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Cook, Dutton