Meaning 'one whom bread is shared with', from the Latin, so presumably no animal who doesn't practice the cultivation of wheat can have a companion in the strict sense of the word, although wheat-free breads are possible and ducks, feeding on our scattered breadcrumbs, smoothly glide beside companions. Nobody with gluten intolerance is condemned to live alone. Wheat-free Danish pastries can be consumed, buckwheat pizzas even, as two or more companions meet for their secular mass, their little ceremony of breaking bread together. The table spread between them like an altar, plates that kiss like meeting spheres and conversation blossoming like golden heads of wheat swaying towards each other, almost touching.