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company

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English companye (“a team; companionship”), from Old French compaignie (“companionship”) (Modern French: compagnie), possibly from Late Latin *compania, but this word is not attested. Old French compaignie is equivalent to Old French compaignon (Modern French: compagnon) + -ie. More at companion.

Displaced native Old English werod, gefer, getæl, and hired.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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company (countable and uncountable, plural companies)

  1. A team; a group of people who work together for a common purpose.
    a company of knights
    1. A group of performing artists who put on shows together.
      a company of actors
    2. (nautical, military) The crew of a ship.
      a ship's company
    3. (military) A unit of approximately sixty to one hundred and twenty soldiers, typically consisting of two or three platoons and forming part of a battalion.
      the boys in Company C
      • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 30, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
        It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.
    4. A unit of firefighters and their equipment.
      It took six companies to put out the fire.
    5. (espionage, informal) An intelligence service.
      As he had worked for the CIA for over 30 years, he would soon take retirement from the company.
    6. (aviation, informal) A specific aircraft or its airline, usually used in air traffic communications to refer conveniently to another aircraft operated by the same airline.
  2. A small group of birds or animals.
  3. (law) An entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:enterprise
    a financial services company
    • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎[1]:
      “ […] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. […] If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes; love of the people, and that sort of guff.”
    1. (business) Any business, whether incorporated or not, that manufactures or sells products (also known as goods), or provides services as a commercial venture.
      Marconi set up the company who made the first radios.
      • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[2], volume 188, number 23, archived from the original on 11 October 2026, page 19:
        In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
      • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist‎[3], volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 29 June 2017, page 95:
        According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
      • 2021 November 26, Jackie Wattles, “Some Old Spice and Secret deodorants recalled after cancer-causing chemical is detected”, in CNN Business‎[4], archived from the original on 20 February 2026:
        The company added it has not “received any reports of adverse events,” but it’s moving forward with the recall out of “an abundance of caution.”
    2. The members of a partnership business who are not listed in the company's name; unnamed individuals in an entourage or other group.
      Smith, Capitano and Company
      Here come Will, Martin and company.
  4. (uncountable) Companionship.
    I treasure your company.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 2:
      He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
    • 1972, The Stylistics, “Children of The Night”, in Round 2:
      So I go into the darkness of the night / All alone I walk the streets until I find / Someone who is just like me / Looking for some company
    1. (uncountable) One or more social visitor(s) or companion(s).
      Keep the house clean; I have company coming.
      • 1742, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”, Charles Wesley (music):
        Come, O thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see! / My company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee; / With Thee all night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the break of day.
      • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools‎[5], volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202:
        At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]
      • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
        The departure was not unduly prolonged. In the road Mr. Love and the driver favoured the company with a brief chanty running. “Got it?—No, I ain't, 'old on,—Got it? Got it?—No, 'old on sir.”
    2. (figurative) One or more other person(s) who are nearby, are approaching, or are (e.g. covertly) watching, especially if they may have hostile intentions (like adversaries or rivals).
      Get your guns ready: intel said there'd be no hostiles in the area, but it looks like we've got company.
      I thought we'd be the only ones exploring this abandoned tunnel system today, but judging by that light up ahead, it looks like we've got company. I wonder if it's anyone we know.

Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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See also Thesaurus:enterprise.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Hindi: कंपनी (kampnī)
  • → Hokkien: 公班衙 (kong-pan-gêe / kong-pan-gê)
  • → Malay: kompeni
  • → Pohnpeian: kompani
  • → Scottish Gaelic: companaidh
  • → Swahili: kampuni

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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company (third-person singular simple present companies, present participle companying, simple past and past participle companied)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To accompany, keep company with.
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts x:[28], folio clxix, recto:
      Ye dooe knowe howe thatt hytt ys an vnlawefull thynge for a man beynge a iewe to company or come vnto an alient […] .
    • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 2:
      it was with a distinctly fallen countenance that his father hearkened to his mother's parenthetical request to “’bide hyar an’ company leetle Moses whilst I be a-milkin’ the cow.”
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To associate.
  3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be a lively, cheerful companion.
  4. (obsolete, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse.
    • a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. I. F.:
      companying with Infidels may not be simply condemned

Synonyms

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Catalan

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FWOTD – 5 April 2014

Etymology

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Inherited from Late Latin compāniō, from Latin cum + pānis (“bread”). This form was inherited from the Latin nominative, while the variant companyó came from the accusative compāniōnem.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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company m (plural companys, feminine companya, feminine plural companyes)

  1. companion, colleague
  2. partner, mate
  3. buddy, friend

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ http://www.diccionari.cat/lexicx.jsp?GECART=0032364

Further reading

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Middle English

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Noun

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company

  1. alternative form of companye
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