Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally", often with a military or left-wing political connotation. The term was also used by Italian Fascists and the German Nazi Party (Camerata, Kamerad). The word comes from French camarade from Latin camera (room).

Background

The political usage of the term was inspired by the French Revolution. Upon abolishing the titles of nobility, and the terms monsieur and madame (literally, "milord" and "milady"), the revolutionaries employed the term citoyen(ne) (meaning "citizen") to refer to each other. The deposed King Louis XVI, for instance, was referred to as Citoyen Louis Capet to emphasize his loss of privilege.

When the socialist movement gained momentum in the mid-19th century, socialists began to look for an egalitarian alternative to terms like "Mister", "Miss", or "Missus". They chose "comrade" as their preferred term of address. In German, this practice was started in 1875, with the establishment of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.Anrede "Genosse" nicht mehr zeitgemäßOtto Ladendorf. Historisches Schlagwörterbuch (1906) In English, the first known use of the word with this meaning was in 1884 in the socialist magazine Justice.

German usage

In German, Kamerad and Kameradin for females is the most direct translation of the word "comrade" in a non-political sense. It is used within the Bundeswehr, among firemen and in schools for classmates (Klassenkamerad). Politically, however, this word is associated not with the left but rather with the far right, as it was historically used by the Nazi Party and is still sometimes used by organizations with similar ideologies. The term corresponding to "Comrade" on the political left is Genosse (Genossin for females), meaning "mate", "fellow" or "companion" (outside of politics, it can occur e.g. in Hausgenosse "housemate"). It was first introduced as a political form of address in 1875 by the German Social-Democrats, when they established the then-Marxist Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (today's Social Democratic Party of Germany).Anrede "Genosse" nicht mehr zeitgemäßOtto Ladendorf. Historisches Schlagwörterbuch (1906) They intended Genosse as a translation of Latin socius ("sharing", "partner", "comrade", "associate", "ally"), as reflected in the words "social" and "socialism". Etymologically, Genosse can be traced to Old High German genōze, with the same meaning, from nōz "productive livestock": originally "someone who shares livestock or grazing land (with someone else)", hence "someone who uses/enjoys (geniesst) something together (with someone else)".