November 30, 2009 - 9:41pm
French is the language of bread
My new neighbour, a high school French teacher, upon receiving a welcoming loaf of bread from me told me that "pain" is french for "bread" and "copain" is French for "friend". I don't remember exactly what she said the "co" part was, but it linked bread with friendship very basically. Inspired to look up "companion" in an English dictionary I find:
companion: ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French compaignon,
literally ‘one who breaks bread with another,’ based on Latin
com- ‘together with’ + panis ‘bread.’
Pretty cool, eh?
:-Paul