Comrade

The term comrade is used to mean "friend", "mate", "colleague", or "ally", and derives from the Iberian Romance language term camarada, literally meaning "chamber mate", from Latin camera "chamber" or "room". A political use of the term was inspired by the French Revolution, after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers. Ever since the Russian Revolution, popular media in the Western World have often associated it with Communism.

Upon abolishing the titles of nobility in France, and the terms monsieur and madame (literally, "my lord" and "my lady"), the revolutionaries employed the term citoyen for men and citoyenne for women (both 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 elsewhere began to look for a similar egalitarian alternative to terms like "Mister", "Miss", or "Missus". In German, the word had long been used as an affectionate form of address among people linked by some strong common interest, such as a sport, a college, a profession (notably as a soldier), or simply friendship. The term was often used with political overtones in the revolutions of 1848, and was subsequently borrowed by French and English. In English, the first known use of the word "comrade" with this meaning was in 1884 in the socialist magazine Justice.

In the late 19th century Russian Marxists and other leftist revolutionaries adopted as a translation of the word "Kamerad" the Russian word tovarishch (from Old Turkic tavar ishchi; abbreviated tov.), whose original meaning was "business companion" or "travel (or other adventure) mate", deriving from the noun товар (tovar, i.e., 'merchandise'). as a form of address in international (especially German) Social Democracy and in the associated parts of the workers' movement. For instance, one might be referred to as Comrade Plekhanov or Comrade Chairman, or simply as Comrade. After the Russian Revolution, translations of the term in different languages were adopted by Communists worldwide. As a result, even though many other socialists would continue to use "Comrade" among themselves (e.g., German and Austrian social-democrats and, to this day, members of the British Labour Party), it became most strongly associated in public consciousness with Communism as known in the Soviet Union. This is exemplified in its mocking use in stereotypical portrayals of the Soviet Union in Cold War films and books.

...
Wikipedia