*IDEAorange

A cohort was orig­i­nally one of the ten divi­sions of a legion in the Roman army, con­tain­ing from 300 to 600 men. The most com­mon use of cohort today is in the sense “group” or “com­pany”: A cohort of hangers-on fol­lowed the singer down the cor­ri­dor. In a devel­op­ment empha­siz­ing the idea of com­pan­ion­ship, cohort has also come to mean a sin­gle com­pan­ion, asso­ciate, or the like: Steve Jobs was in my chort.