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.

Origin

• From Middle English companion, from Old French compaignon (modern French compagnon), from Late Latin (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, from Proto-Germanic *gahlaibô. Compare also Old High German galeipo ("messmate") and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 ("messmate"); and, for the semantics, compare Old Armenian ընկեր ("friend"). More at co-, loaf. Displaced native Old English ġefēra.