Companionship is the comfort of having somebody alongside you. Value the companionship, for companionship, human companionship.
It is about presence rather than conversation, which is why it is the reason people give for keeping a dog and for sharing a house. Research on loneliness treats it as distinct from having a large social network — companionship is about somebody being there. Note companion; and that the word means literally one who shares bread, from panis.
1nouncompanionshipThe comfort of having somebody alongside you.
“After his wife died, he got a dog for companionship.”
companionship is a comfort of presence.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₂-
Old French
compaignon
Middle English
companion
English
companion
English, today
companionship
Built from
From companion + -ship. companion comes from Middle English companion, from Old French compaignon. From Middle English companion, from Old French compaignon (“companion”) (modern French compagnon), from Latin compāniōn- (nominative singular compāniō, whence French copain), from com + pānis (literally, with + bread), a word first attested in the Frankish Lex Salica as a calque of a gem word, probably Frankish galaibo, gahlaibō (“messmate”) literally “with-bread”, from Proto-Germanic gahlaibô. Compare also Old High German galeipo (“messmate”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (“messmate”); and, for the semantics, compare xcl ընկեր (“friend”) literally “messmate”. More at co-, loaf. Displaced native Old English ġefēra literally “fellow traveler”. Compare company and mate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA