different between bunch vs company

English

Etymology

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.

Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunk?, *bunkô, *bung? (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?en??-, *b?éng??us (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búož? (“knob”), Ancient Greek ????? (pakhús, “thick”), Sanskrit ??? (bahú, “thick; much”)).

Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Noun

bunch (plural bunches)

1. A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
2. (cycling) The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
3. An informal body of friends.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, […], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

4. (US, informal) A considerable amount.

5. (informal) An unmentioned amount; a number.

6. (forestry) A group of logs tied together for skidding.
7. (geology, mining) An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
   • 1874, David Page, Economic Geology: Or, Geology in Its Relations to the Arts and Manufactures

     The ore may be disseminated throughout the matrix in minute particles, as gold in quartz; in parallel threads, strings, and plates, as with copper; in irregular pockets or bunches

8. (textiles) The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.
9. An unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.

10. A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.

Synonyms

• (group of similar things): cluster, group
• (informal body of friends): pack, group, gang, circle
• (unusual concentration of ore): ore pocket, pocket, pocket of ore, kidney, nest, nest of ore, ore bunch, bunch of ore

Derived terms

• buncha (bunch of)

Translations

Verb

bunch (third-person singular simple present bunches, present participle bunching, simple past and past participle bunched)

1. (transitive) To gather into a bunch.
2. (transitive) To gather fabric into folds.
3. (intransitive) To form a bunch.
4. (intransitive) To be gathered together in folds
5. (intransitive) To protrude or swell
   • 1728, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England

     Bunching out into a large round knob at one end.

Synonyms

• (form a bunch): cluster, group

Derived terms

• bunch up

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• companie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English companye (“a team; companionship”), from Old French compaignie (“companionship”) (Modern French: compagnie), possibly from Late Latin *compania, but this word is not attested. Old French compaignie is equivalent to Old French compaignon (Modern French: compagnon) + -ie. More at companion.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?mp(?)ni/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?mp?ni/
• Hyphenation: com?pany

Noun

company (countable and uncountable, plural companies)

1. A team; a group of people who work together professionally.
   1. A group of individuals who work together for a common purpose.

   2. (military) A unit of approximately sixty to one hundred and twenty soldiers, typically consisting of two or three platoons and forming part of a battalion.
   3. A unit of firefighters and their equipment.

   4. (nautical) The entire crew of a ship.
   5. (espionage, informal) An intelligence service.

2. A small group of birds or animals.
3. (law) An entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.
4. (business) Any business, whether incorporated or not, that manufactures or sells products (also known as goods), or provides services as a commercial venture.
5. (uncountable) Social visitors or companions.
6. (uncountable) Companionship.

Synonyms

• (in legal context, a corporation): corporation
• (group of individuals with a common purpose): association, companionship, fellowship, organization, society
• (companionship): fellowship, friendship, mateship

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• accompany
• companion
• discompany

Descendants

• ? Hindi: ????? (kampn?)

Translations

Verb

company (third-person singular simple present companies, present participle companying, simple past and past participle companied)

1. (archaic, transitive) To accompany, keep company with.
2. (archaic, intransitive) To associate.
3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be a lively, cheerful companion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

4. (obsolete, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse.
   • a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. I. F.

     companying with Infidels may not be simply condemned

Synonyms

• (to accompany): attend, escort, go with
• (to have sexual intercourse): fornicate, have sex, make love; see also Thesaurus:copulate

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /kom?pa?/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /kum?pa?/

Noun

company m (plural companys, feminine companya)

1. companion, colleague
2. partner, mate

Derived terms

• acompanyar

Related terms

• companyia

Further reading

• “company” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Middle English

Noun

company

1. Alternative form of companye