compaña

Galician

The Compaña (graffiti in Pontevedra)

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese companna, from Vulgar Latin *compānia, from Latin compāniō (whence also French compagnon, Italian compagnone), from cum + pānis, a calque from Gothic. Doublet of compañía. Compare Portuguese companha and Spanish compaña.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /komˈpaɲa̝/

Noun

compaña f (plural compañas)

1. group of people

   Synonyms: compañía, fato

2. company

   Synonym: compañía

   • 1884, O tío Marcos da Portela, volume 2, number 45, page 1:

     na compaña dos meus bos amigos Benito das Vacalouras e Martiño de Zamora, metínme nun deses wagós do camiño de ferro d'Ourense a Vigo, i anque fumos nel como sardiñas en banasta, non tivemos queixa, porque neso da comparanza das sardiñas, nosoutros éramos das cabezudas, i as que levábamos á beira eran das escochadas, frescas e pequerrechiñas e cun sal

     in the company of my good friends Benito das Vacalouras and Martiño from Zamora, I entered one of those wagons of the railroad from Ourense to Vigo and, even if we travelled packed as sardines, we had no complaint, because on that comparison we were as sardines with head, but those next to us were as headless sardines, fresh and small and salted

3. (dated) troop or army
4. (mythology, folklore) the procession of the death, also known as estantiga, the "ancient troop" (a Christianized form of the Wild Hunt); similar to the sluagh and fairy host of the folklore of Ireland and Scotland

   Synonyms: estantiga, santa compaña

   • 1746, Martín Sarmiento, Coloquio de 24 gallegos rústicos, page 106:

     Non viche Maruxa, nas noites do inverno, andar a estantiga polos matorreiros, a estantiga digo, que chaman os vellos hostea ou compaña que a todos fai medo

     Haven't you see, Maruxa, in the winter nights, the Estantiga passing by the woods? The Estantiga, I say, the one the old ones call the Host or Company, which frightens everyone

Derived terms

• compañeiro

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “companha”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “compaña”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• "compaña" in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “compaña”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “compaña”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /komˈpaɲa/ [kõmˈpa.ɲa]
• Rhymes: -aɲa
• Syllabification: com‧pa‧ña

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Spanish companna, from Vulgar Latin *compānia, from Late Latin compāniō from cum + pānis (“bread”). Compare Galician compaña and Portuguese companha.

Alternative forms

• conpaña (obsolete)

Noun

compaña f (plural compañas)

1. Alternative form of compañía (“company”)

Derived terms

• acompañar

 

Related terms

• compañero
• compañón

 

Noun

compaña f (plural compañas)

1. female equivalent of compaño

Etymology 2

Verb

compaña

1. inflection of compañar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “compaño”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28