Commensality: Time and Space, Port and Sport, Code and Dress

Abstract

Commensality is Halsey’s intriguing word. He ponders, ‘Will commensality survive and, if so, with what further modifications’ (1995, The Decline of Donnish Dominion, p. 174)? But the reader may well reasonably ask, ‘What is ‘commensality’? The OED defines the noun ‘commensal’ as: ‘(one) who eats at the same table; (animal or plant) living harmlessly with or in another and thus obtaining food …’