Company's Coming

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:26 am

If they're visiting for a few days, it's "I've got some friends/I've got family visiting"
If for the evening, it's "I'm having some friends over this evening"

Maybe that's just me, though, because I grew up (Seattle area) hearing "Company's coming"

M

chas · Post by **chas** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:31 am

I grew up in New England using the word company. I think for the most part I say guests now; I'm not sure whether it's due to passage of time or relocating to the mid-Atlantic.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:32 am

"Get out the good china, there's company coming."

And you have to wear your "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes. (Uncomfortable!)

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:38 am

If it's a casual get-together of a few friends, it's just "having people (friends) over". But a more formal dinner party or even cocktail type party is "company". (Grew up in IL and now live in WI, if that matters)

gonzo914 · Post by **gonzo914** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:29 am

If it's friends, we call it "company."

If it's family, we close the curtains, turn the lights out, and get behind the couch until they give up and go away.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:08 am

gonzo914 wrote:If it's friends, we call it "company."

If it's family, we close the curtains, turn the lights out, and get behind the couch until they give up and go away.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:16 pm

Here in southwest Va we say "cump-nee". That would be for a bunch of folks or only one. "Company's a- comming over, down, in, up, etc. " or often to a person who calls on the phone" I've got company", which is a polite way of saying I can't talk on the phone right now.

"Visitors" is also used, but not as much perhaps as company.

We would pronounce it the same whether talking about the company you work for or guests. Guest would be a word I'd use when writing, but never when speaking.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:44 pm

I've just thought of two occasions when we had what I would call house guests. Both times they were people I did not know who stayed for a few days---one time a family whose mother was collaborating on some work with my husband and the other time the mother of a student I knew slightly who had not booked a motel room soon enough for graduation. The family did have meals with us and I attempted to entertain the children, etc.---it was actually quite fun. The student's mother was mostly off doing graduation stuff for parents and she ate with other relatives, so we didn't see her a lot, she came and went on her own and it worked out very well. I guess mainly they were not coming here to see me and I had never met them before, so they weren't company, even though they were all very nice, they were house guests. For some reason.

CountryKitty · Post by **CountryKitty** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:47 pm

I'm originally from southern Michigan, transplanted to Texas while young, and now live in Kentucky with a Georgia-born/Kentucky-raised hubby.

My family, the in-laws, hubby and I have always used guests and company interchangeably. My folks tend to use more proper english, while hubby's folks lean more toward a drawled southern slang. We've had 'company staying the week' and 'houseguests up/down/in for a few days'.

As nomadic as American society has been since WWII, most expressions and phrases that were once 'regionalisms' are now a lot more widespread.

Kinda like the word "y'all". A former Navy Submariner I know says that the word caught on with much of the crew he worked with and soon everyone used it, no matter where they were from.

Or saying "Gesundheit!" when someone sneezes--it's German, but it's pretty common to hear darn near anywhere in the States.

Or the British term 'bloody'. My Redneck honey frequently announces the he just doesn't "bloody well give a Rat's ...."

...um, you get the idea.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:00 am

"You kids get out to the barn. Company's coming up the lane," my grandmother would say. With twelve kids living in a farmhouse back a 1/4 mile lane, she had time to shoo some of her kids with raggity and patched clothing out to the barn to get them out of sight before the company's horse and buggy made it back the lane.

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:53 am

Always "company" for us (northern California).

I heard it from all four of my grandparents (born in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota, California). If it was family, friends, or neighbors visiting, they were "company".

The times someone used "guest", it matched Cynth's usage - someone visiting that they didn't know well, often a house guest (exchange student, friend-of-a-friend, etc.). Or if they were specifically visiting one person in the house but wasn't particularly close to the rest. We described my daughter's college boyfriend as a "guest" when he visited. When and if he crosses the line to "family", we'd probably describe him as "company".

"Visitor" seems to have an implication of short term, probably because we use "visitor" that way at work. "John has a visitor right now - he'll call you back when she leaves".

Interesting discussion - these are pretty fine, and likely subjective, distinctions to be making.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:38 am

Company in Long Island/Western NY.

"Can you come over after school?"
"I can't. We're having company over."

"Wanna come out and play?"
"Sorry, we've got company right now."

rhulsey · Post by **rhulsey** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:42 am

I grew up in Oklahoma, but have lived all over this fair nation of ours. Been laughed at few times - people in PA thought i sounded like a foreigner for some reason!

but "company" was the order of the day where i was raised. i don't know that i ever heard the word "visitor" used in conjunction with a guest in the home, maybe in the workplace.

my mom, who passed on last year at 83, had lost most of her eyesight, and smoked a lot as she had all her adult life. If you asked her why she didn't quit, she'd tell you that "smoking is company to me - what else do i have to do". so there's maybe another use?

reg

A-Musing · Post by **A-Musing** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:23 pm

I'm a bit of a hermit, so the company of guests is rare.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:02 pm

Having company is one thing, but being company is another matter. Let's face it, in the past when you have seen a carload of inlaws arrive in the driveway to pay a visit, you may have been less than enthusiastic to stop what you were doing and to entertain your company. However, when you are being company, the shoe is on the other foot. I remember my family driving to another town to pay a visit to the family of my father's brother. What we didn't know is that they were planning to go someplace, but those plans were interrupted by our sudden appearance at their house. No one ever thought about using the telephone to OK a visit. I remember my cousin, Dennis, going up to my dad and kicking him in the shins. He said, "Go home. We don't want no company!"