Dictionary

companionable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-der.? Latin pānis Proto-Indo-European *-ōder. Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.? Latin -ō Proto-West Germanic *gahlaibōcalq. Late Latin compāniō Old French compaignonder. Middle English companion English companion Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English companionable From companion + -able.

Meanings

1. Having the characteristics of a worthy companion; friendly and sociable.
   • They are a companionable food; they make a pleasant, crunching noise when they are bitten, and so, when one is eating carrots, one can listen to the sound of one's eating and make a story from it. 1914, James Stephens, The Demi-Gods, New York: Macmillan, published 1921, Book II, pp. 126-7:
   • She returned presently, bringing a smoking basin and a basket of work; and, having placed the former on the hob, drew in her seat, evidently pleased to find me so companionable. 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:
   • Bottles of rye, purgative waters and eaux for every conceivable toilette made a companionable click in his worn carpet bag. 1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, New York: Vintage, published 2004, page 100:
   • The up and down lines ran next to each other in vault-like tunnels, whereas the Tube trains would occupy their own tunnels. That's why the cut-and-cover lines are more human than the Tubes. They are more companionable. You can see people going the other way - your perspective is broadened. 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 35–36:
   • All the disagreeable circumstances of my prison had become, as it were, to me friendly and companionable; not one of them gave me annoyance. 1887, Benvenuto Cellini, chapter CXXI, in John Addington Symonds, transl., Autobiography, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, published 1910, page 240:
   • Then he strolled back again, kicking his heels carelessly, and a companionable silence fell between the three men. 1908, G. K. Chesterton, chapter IX, in The Man Who Was Thursday, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, published 1910, page 154:
   • I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. 1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter V, in Walden, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, published 1910, page 178:

Forms

Deriveds

uncompanionable · companionableness · companionably · companionability

Translations (13)

pl przyjacielski (being worthy of companionship) · fa درخورِ معاشرت (being worthy of companionship) · bg приятелски (being worthy of companionship) · fa اجتماعی (being worthy of companionship) · de gesellig (being worthy of companionship) · fi toverillinen (being worthy of companionship) · pl towarzyski (being worthy of companionship) · bg общителен (being worthy of companionship) · fa شایستهٔ رفاقت (being worthy of companionship) · hu társaságkedvelő (being worthy of companionship) · hu barátkozó (being worthy of companionship) · hu barátságos (being worthy of companionship) · ga cuideachtúil (being worthy of companionship)