contubernal

[prettygoodword]

contubernal (kon-tu-BER-nuhl) - adj., living together, intimate, in companionship. n., a companion.


More literally, living in the same tent. This seems to have originally been applied to the marriage of slaves, as opposed to free men who got to be connubial, but seems to have along the way been applied to messmates or tentmates in the army. I don't know when exactly it was borrowed from the Latin contubernalis (from com-, together with + taberna, tent) but I see citations ranging from Chaucer to Patrick O'Brian, so it's got a long history.

---L.

Comments

[spacedlaw.livejournal.com]

I would have thought this was about root sharing, but nooo... No tuber was hurt in the making of this word.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

But the top of at least one a was lopped off.

---L.