comrade

From earlier cumrade, camrade, comerade, camerade, camarade, from Middle French camarade, from Spanish camarada or Italian camerata (“chamber mate”), from Medieval Latin *camarata, from Latin camara, camera (“vaulted room, chamber”); see chamber. Compare camaraderie and chamberlain.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmɹeɪd/
  • (MLE) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰɔmɹed]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmɹæd/, /ˈkɑmɹəd/

• Audio (California):

  (file)

• (Republic of Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmɹeɪd/, /ˈkʊmɹeɪd/, /-ɹeːd/
• (Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmɹeɪd/, /ˈkʌmɹeɪd/, /-ɹeːd/

comrade (plural comrades)

1. A mate, companion, or associate. [from 1590s]
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 20:

     [… these tears] Which weep the comrade of my choice,
     ⁠An awful thought, a life removed,
     ⁠The human-hearted man I loved,
     A spirit, not a breathing voice.

   1. A companion in battle; fellow soldier.
      • 2019, Antony Beevor, chapter 16, in Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944, Penguin Books, page 194:

        Wierzbowski and his men were so exhausted that they could hardly stay awake, but they knew they could not abandon their wounded comrades.

3. (communism, by extension) A fellow socialist, communist or other similarly politically aligned person. [from 1884]

   Hello, comrade. Are you going to the Communist Party meeting tonight?

   • 1976, Survey of People's Republic of China Press, numbers 6086–6105, United States Consulate General (Hong Kong), →ISSN, →OCLC, page 187:

     Many comrades like Chang Te-fa, deputy secretary of the Party committee of Hsialuho commune of K'uantien county, precisely see the hope of the revolutionary cause in the youths.

5. (communism) A non-hierarchical title, functionally similar to "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Miss", "Ms." etc, in a communist, socialist, or rarely in an Islamist state. [from 1884]

   Comrade Lenin inspired our people to undertake great works.

• see also Thesaurus:friend
• (title): compare sister, brother
• battle buddy
• tovarish
• compagno

comrade (third-person singular simple present comrades, present participle comrading, simple past and past participle comraded)

1. (intransitive) To associate with someone in a friendly way.
   • 1916, Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger:

     But she was happy, for she was far away under another sky, and comrading again with her Rangers, and her animal friends, and the soldiers.

• “comrade”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “comrade”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “comrade (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• DeMarco, Demarco, Mercado, caromed, dome car