Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Merriam-Webster Word of the Day: Camraderie

camaraderie \kahm-RAH-duh-ree\ noun

: a spirit of friendly good-fellowship

Example sentence:
The sense of camaraderie among colleagues in the sales department is the main reason Julie enjoys coming to work each day.

Did you know?
"Camaraderie" comes from "camarade," the French word whose Middle French ancestor was also the source for our word "comrade." "Camaraderie" made its first appearance in English in the middle of the 19th century. In Middle French, "camarade" was used to mean "roommate," "companion," or "a group sleeping in one room." It derived by way of Old Spanish from the Late Latin "camera," meaning "chamber." We also have the word "comradery," which means the same thing as "camaraderie" but did not take the same etymological route as its synonym. That word, formed by attaching the "-ry" suffix (as found in "wizardry" and "citizenry") to "comrade," didn't appear in English until almost 40 years after "camaraderie."

3 comments:

Michael said...

I mind

Anonymous said...

I think there is a mispelling here:
Merriam-Webster Word of the Day: Camraderie - and later in the article you have camaraderie...wich is it

Anonymous said...

I looked this up on Google because someone had misspelled it in an email. Now I see its misspelled here as well. So, which is it: "camraderie" or "camaraderie." My dictionary gives the latter spelling.