companion
Meanings
noun
- A friend, acquaintance, or partner; someone with whom one spends time or accompanies
- A person employed to accompany or travel with another.
- The framework on the quarterdeck of a sailing ship through which daylight entered the cabins below.
- The covering of a hatchway on an upper deck which leads to the companionway; the stairs themselves.
- A knot in whose neighborhood another, specified knot meets every meridian disk.
- A thing or phenomenon that is closely associated with another thing, phenomenon, or person.
- An appended source of media or information, designed to be used in conjunction with and to enhance the main material.
- A celestial object that is associated with another.
- A knight of the lowest rank in certain orders.
- A fellow; a rogue.
verb
- To be a companion to; to attend on; to accompany.
- To qualify as a companion; to make equal.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English companion, from Old French compaignon (“companion”) (modern French compagnon), from Late Latin compāniōn- (nominative singular compāniō, whence French copain), from com- + pānis (literally, with + bread), a word first attested in the Frankish Lex Salica as a calque of a Germanic word, probably Frankish *galaibo, *gahlaibō (“messmate”, literally “with-bread”), from Proto-Germanic *gahlaibô. Compare also Old High German galeipo (“messmate”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (gahlaiba, “messmate”); and, for the semantics, compare Old Armenian ընկեր (ənker, “friend”, literally “messmate”). More at co-, loaf. Displaced native Old English ġefēra (literally “fellow traveler”). Compare company and mate.
Related words
Derived words
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