Learn English – A word or phrase for people who eat together and share the same food

phrase-requestssingle-word-requests

Is there a word or phrase for people who eat together at the same table (not necessarily regularly) and share the same food? I would need this word in the following passage:

______ around the table share the same food. Yet in each one this food is converted into what they need.

I would prefer a single word, but if there isn't one, I would accept other solutions, too.

Note: The register of language is rather formal.

I had thought of companions, but it is too general, it does not refer only to food. In my mother tongue there is a word that means "co-eater" or "co-tabler". I was wondering if a particular term or phrase exists in English to describe that.

Edit: Due to comments of some who were not sure of one detail in the connotation I have described here, I will add that share the same food refers to the same material food (whether the dishes they actually eat are identical or not is not important).

If no commonly used word or phrase is found, would it be okay to paraphrase it in this way:

People who eat together around the table share the same food. Yet in each one this food is converted into what they need.

Best Answer

From the SOED

commensal a. & n. 1 Eating at or pertaining to the same table. Late Middle English

  • Commensals around the table share the same food. Yet in each one this food is converted into what they need.

This seems pleonastic, so, it is probably better to change it.

  • Commensals share the same food. Yet in each one this food is converted into what they need.