Company

How to spell company

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce company

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does company mean?

1. nounA commercial business or firm that produces or sells goods or services.
2. nounThe pleasant presence of other people, or a person or people you spend time with.
3. nounA body of soldiers, typically commanded by a captain and made up of several platoons.

Company in a sentence

• The company posted record profits this quarter.

• After the move she missed the company of her old neighbours.

• The captain led his company across the bridge at dawn.

• She left her job to start a software company.

• The dog gave him welcome company during the long winter.

• Each company was assigned a separate sector of the front.

Where does company come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Late Latin companio, meaning literally 'one who eats bread with you', formed from com- 'together with' and panis 'bread'. That vivid image of sharing a meal passed into Old French as compaignie, a word for fellowship or a body of companions, and English borrowed it in the 1200s. From the general sense of a gathering of people it branched in two practical directions: a band of soldiers serving together, and a group of merchants or investors trading together, which gave us the modern business meaning. The same panis 'bread' root still feeds the words 'pantry' and 'companion', and remembering 'com-pan-y' as people sharing bread helps fix the unstressed middle, which writers sometimes slur or drop. The spelling settled with the -pany ending, where the schwa vowel hides the fact that it is the bread root.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pani- (from Latin panis: bread)
• -y (noun suffix); literally those who break bread together