Cellmate

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A companion who resides in the same confined space as another within a penal institution
2. An inmate who occupies a prison cell together with another person making their incarceration easier to endure
3. A person who shares a confined cell with another inmate in prison

Etymology: "Cellmate" is a plain compound: the noun "cell" joined to "-mate," the English element that has meant a companion or partner since the Middle Ages. "Mate" itself came into Middle English from Middle Low German "mate," a word for a companion at table or in a shared space, which is why the "-mate" in "messmate" and "shipmate" carries the same sense of someone you share daily life with. "Cell" has a longer lineage. It descends from Latin "cella," a small room or storeroom, and reached English through Old English before the Middle English period, where it also entered through Old French. Its sense of a prison room came later, from the idea of a small enclosed chamber. So a cellmate is, etymologically, a companion within a small enclosed room, and the word describes that situation with nothing added beyond the two parts themselves.

Synonyms: inmate, fellow prisoner

Antonyms: guard, warden