What does the word fellowship mean?

Answer 1

the word fellowship means closeness or things in common with! We must fellowship with God and His son Jesus Christ. In 1 John 1:3 it tell us. This is expressed through prayer, praise, worship and obedience to God.

Addition:

The word fellowshiphas various roots. In Old English there was a term meaning "community, fellowship, union, common ownership". In Middle English there was the word "companionship" (- fellow + -ship). In late fourteenth century France there was a word in circulation that meant "community, commonness, everybody" from an earlier Latin word meaning "common, public, general, shared by all or many". The Greek word koinonia means "communion, fellowship" and comes from the word koinos meaning "common, ordinary".

As a noun, fellowshipis now taken to mean: "Friendship, relatedness or connection between people" or "The companionship of individuals in a congenial atmosphere and on equal terms."

A very terse definition: "The state of being with someone."

The word is now also used as a verb, which means "To make feel welcome by showing friendship or building a cordial relationship."

A somewhat old fashioned usage is "A friendly feeling that exists between people who have a shared interest or are doing something as a group." The more modern connotation might be "A close association of friends or equals sharing similar interests." Quite typically, this might now be used of a group of people all having the same consuming purpose or mission. (Examples: Self-help groups, churches, scholarly societies.)

That older connotation of "common ownership" or "union" may have evolved and multiplied in some rather more specific directions. So fellowship now also means: The financial grant made to a fellow in a college or university; the status of having been awarded such a grant; and, a foundation established for the awarding of such a grant. The fellowship grant is money issued by a university, foundation, or other agency particularly for advanced study or research. [But note that the word scholarship is commonly used to mean a grant that enables any (non-graduate) student to pursue a course of study.]

I hope you will permit me to leave you with this little reflection:

It would be a great loss if some of the older roots and connotations of this word fellowship were not still made known and kept current. They tell us something very significant about ourselves, that is, about humanity in general. Even in spite of so-called culture and language 'barriers' and the various degrees of emotional baggage that people can carry, we remain very broadly gregarious by nature. This hinges on an intrinsic gift for fellowship that is, among us, perfectly common and ordinary. Be it entirely common and ordinary, fellowship is the source of our greatest joys, so perhaps we should treasure it and never take it for granted!