compeer
English
Etymology
From Middle English comper, from Middle French comper, from Latin compater, compatrem. Doublet of compere as well as compadre and goombah. Influenced by folk-etymological analysis as com- + peer.
(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kəmˈpɪə(ɹ)/, /kɒmˈpɪə(ɹ)/
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Noun
compeer (plural compeers)
- (obsolete) The equal or peer of someone else; a close companion or associate.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- And him thus answer'd soon his bold compeer.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, pages 155–156:
- She had fallen into the common error of supposing that the author must personify his works, and that his conversation must be copy and compeer of his writings.
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Verb
compeer (third-person singular simple present compeers, present participle compeering, simple past and past participle compeered)
- To be equal with; to match.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:
- In my rights, / By me invested, he compeers the best.
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Anagrams
- Compere, compere, compère, precome