Other forms: companies
A company is an organisation that sells products or services. A software company, start a company, the company closed.
Firm is the near equivalent, and in British legal use a limited company is a specific structure. The other main sense is people's presence: keep somebody company, in good company, I enjoy her company. Two is company, three is a crowd is the old saying. Note company car, company policy; and that a theatre company and a company of soldiers are the same word for a group who work as one.
1nouncompanyAn organisation that sells products or services.~98%
“He works for a big computer company in the city.”
2nounpresenceThe presence of other people.~2%
“He kept her company for the whole afternoon.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
company is an organisation or companionship.
Also accepted in games: firm
Latin com-, with, plus panis, bread — a company is people who eat bread together. Companion is the same word, and the image is a shared meal rather than a shared purpose.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₂-
Latin
*compania
Old French
compaignie — companionship
Middle English
companye — a team; companionship
English, today
company
From Middle English companye (“a team; companionship”), from Old French compaignie (“companionship”) (Modern French: compagnie), possibly from Latin compania, but this word is not attested. Old French compaignie is equivalent to Old French compaignon (Modern French: compagnon) + -ie. More at companion. Displaced native Old English werod, gefer, getæl, and hired.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA