compaña

Forms

compaña f (plural compañas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it companna or conpanna, and later conpaña and compayna.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish companna, inherited from Vulgar Latin *compānia (“company”).^[3][1][4] The Latin word was formed from cum (“with”) and pānis (“bread”), as “the act of eating the same bread”.^[5][6]

Corominas holds that it was formed at the same time as the Merovingian Latin compāniō (“companion”), found in the Lex Salica of the early 6th century, which is a calque of Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (gahlaiba, “companion”), from 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃 (hlaifs, “bread”).^[3][7] Lehmann reports the opposite view, that the Gothic word imitates the Latin military term.^[8] Wiktionary takes the model to be Proto-West Germanic *gahlaibō (“messmate”).^[1] The same Latin word is Portuguese companha, Galician compaña, Catalan companya, Old Occitan companha, Old French compaigne and Italian compagna.^[9][3]

Spanish formed compañero from this noun, while compañía is derived from the old compaño “companion”.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses compaña for a band of men gathered for a purpose, for a lord's retinue and for the knights serving a leader, and so as a synonym of hueste “host”: derredor dél una buena conpaña “around him a good company”.^[10][11] The plural conpañas is frequent there for the Cid's troops.^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word also meant a lord's household and servants, and a troop of soldiers under one banner;^[13] Autoridades in 1726 marked all these senses as old and little used.^[13] The Academy in 1843 noted that it was still said in some parts in the greeting á Dios fulano y la compaña, and that the house for the dependants of the monastery at El Escorial was called casa de la compaña.^[14] Its place in the standard language was taken by compañía.^[3]

The word stayed popular in the countryside: in Argentina, in Salamanca in the phrase en amor y compaña, in Asturias for the crew of a fishing boat, and in Galicia, Asturias and León for a night procession of souls, the Santa Compaña.^{[3][15][16][17][18]} In the Americas it is recorded from 1516, for the crew of an expedition.^[19] In Peru it can mean a man's partner, and in the Dominican Republic a side dish.^[20][21]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[10][11]
• c. 1444 – Martínez de Toledo writes of a woman pressed in la muchedumbre de la compaña “the crowd of people”.^[11]
• 1516 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[19]
• 1726 – Autoridades marks it as old and little used.^[13]
• 1843 – the Academy notes the regional greeting á Dios fulano y la compaña.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (colloquial, regional) company; the person or people who are with someone.^[4][22][1]
2. (obsolete) A household; the servants of a house.^[4]
3. (Peru, rare) A man's partner.^[20]
4. (Dominican Republic, rural) A side dish served with a main dish.^[20][21]

Word family

• acompañar
• compañero

Related words

• compañón
• compañía
• compaño
• Latin pānis
• Portuguese companha

Usage notes

Compaña survives mainly in set phrases: en amor y compaña “in friendship and company” and the greeting adiós, fulano, y la compaña.^[22][14] In Galicia and Asturias la Santa Compaña is the night procession of souls of folk belief.^[3][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. compaña
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 161
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. compaña
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. compañero
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1776
7. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 117
8. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 167
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 174
11. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 732
12. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 126
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, s.v. compaña
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 177
15. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 117
16. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 346
17. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. compaña
18. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. compaña
19. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. compaña
20. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. compaña
21. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. compaña
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. compaña