a collective term, understood of several persons assembled together. The word is derived from the French compagnie, and that from companio or companions, which, Chillet observes, are found in the Salic law, tit. 66, and are properly military words, being understood of soldiers who, in modern phrase, are comrades or messmates, that is, lodge together and eat together. The real etymology of the word would therefore seem to be the Latin cum, with, and panis, bread. Another etymon also has been proposed—namely, that it is a compound of cum and panus, cloth (Spanish paño, cloth, Teutonic falnae or ean, a flag); hence "company" would signify a body of soldiers under one standard. It may be added, that in some Greek authors under the Western Empire the word συνάρταρα occurs in the sense of society. In modern military phrase, company denotes a subdivision of a regiment of infantry, under the command of a captain, and consisting of from 60 to 100 men.