25/010 Greek Word – συνδαιτυμόνας =  a fellow diner

A word that probably serves no useful purpose unless you want to show off the depth of your Greek vocabulary. The original root word is δαίς, which goes back to Homer, originally meant ‘feast’, ‘meat’ or ‘food’.

Synonyms are ομοτράπεζος and ομόδειπνος, both more readily comprehensible if you have a good grounding in the language: τραπέζι is a table, while δείπνο is supper. And, for the religiously inclined, ο Μυστικός Δείπνος is the Greek for The Last Supper.

I found συνδαιτυμόνας in this article: https://www.iefimerida.gr/politiki/deipno-sto-spiti-tis-katseli-gia-mellon-tis-kentroaristeras-poioi-symmeteihan-ti  

Though it was easy enough to understand the meaning from the context, here’s a word of advice for the author. If you’re going to be pretentious, get the spelling right. Don’t write συνδαιτημόνας. Babiniotis does not offer it as an alternative spelling. Nor does my Μικρό Ελληνικό Λεξικό (compiled by Patakis). However, in the interests of fairness, I have to report that my ancient (1960) Μέγα Ελληνο-Αγγλικόν Λεξικόν (compiled by William Crighton) does offer the spelling with η: συνδαιτημών, which he translates as ‘commensal’ and ‘table companion’. I love commensal with its Latin root ‘mensa’ (= table).

Finally, adding to ομοτράπεζος and ομόδειπνος, Crighton lists σύνδειπνος and its verb συνδειπνώ.  On Word, σύνδειπνος is being flagged as an error.

It’s days like this when you feel you will never master this language!

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