comrade

noun

1. A person who shares one's interests or activities; a friend or companion.
2. often Comrade A fellow member of a group, especially a fellow member of the Communist Party.

Origin:

Origin: French camarade

Origin: , from Old French, roommate

Origin: , from Old Spanish camarada, barracks company, roommate

Origin: , from camara, room

Origin: , from Late Latin camera; see chamber

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Related Forms:

• comˈrade·shipˌ noun

Word History: A comrade can be socially or politically close, a closeness that is found at the etymological heart of the word comrade. In Spanish the Latin word camara, with its Late Latin meaning “chamber, room,” was retained, and the derivative camarada, with the sense “roommates, especially barrack mates,” was formed. Camarada then came to have the general sense “companion.” English borrowed the word from Spanish and French, English comrade being first recorded in the 16th century. The political sense of comrade, now associated with Communism, had its origin in the late-19th-century use of the word as a title by socialists and communists in order to avoid such forms of address as mister. This usage, which originated during the French Revolution, is first recorded in English in 1884.