Vocabulary: Commensal
Submitted by Andrea Altenburg on Tue, 12/18/2012 - 9:45am
Does your family sit down to commensal on a regular basis?
Definition
Commensal - of or relating to those who habitually eat together.
Etymology
Commensal comes from the Latin word commensalis where com means "together” and mensa that means "table".
Use in a Sentence
The couple has a commensal relationship when they invite friends over twice a month for dinner.
The bird was a commensal animal to the cactus.
Resources
Writing a Mac interface means learning a very different set of coding routines and protocols. We spent a year, awhile back, with a 3-foot shelf of
Comments
commensal (adjective)
Anonymous
The definition you give for "commensal" indicates that it is an adjective. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate shows that it may also be used as a noun. But both your sample sentences use it as a verb.
Posted on Tue, 12/18/2012 - 11:28am
wrong part of speech!
Anonymous
It's an adjective, not a verb. You'd have to say something like, "I have a commensal relationship with my neighbor -- we go out to lunch at least once a week."
Posted on Tue, 12/18/2012 - 11:46am
noun
Andrea Altenburg
Thank you for your insight. I had not used these words as an adjective.
Posted on Tue, 12/18/2012 - 6:23pm