So we all know what a companion is…but if you’re anything like me, you’ve never paused to examine where the word came from.
Com is Latin for “with.” Okay…making sense so far. A companion is someone you’re with.
But I’d never stopped to realize that the panion part is from panis–the Latin word for “bread.” So a companion is literally “someone with whom you eat bread.”
Just goes to show that as far back as you care to look, when you live or travel or spend time with someone, food is going to be involved. 😉 Sharing a meal has always been one of the most important aspects of our social bonding. Cool to see that it’s the root even of the words for it!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.