the.com/partnership
two people splitting the bill, the blame, and occasionally the empire.
means A relationship in which two or more people share the work, the profits, and the responsibilities of a common venture, whether a business, a project, or a life together.
from Built from 'partner,' which arrived in English through Anglo-French as an alteration of 'parcener' — a legal term for a co-heir who took a 'parcel' or share of an estate. The root traces back to Latin 'pars, partis,' meaning 'a part' or 'share,' the same ancestor behind 'portion' and 'party.' The folksy '-ner' ending was likely reshaped by the influence of 'part' itself, so the word literally means 'one who holds a share.' Tack on '-ship' — the old Germanic suffix denoting a state or condition — and you get the whole arrangement of sharing made into a noun.
- shared liability
- each partner can be sued for the others' mistakes
- ancient roots
- Roman law had partnership contracts called societas
- no paperwork
- a handshake can legally bind you into one
- silent partners
- invest money, contribute nothing, collect anyway
hewlett packard — william hewlett and david packard founded the company in 1939 in a garage in palo alto
google — larry page and sergey brin partnered to create the search engine at stanford in 1998
microsoft — bill gates and paul allen founded the software company in 1975 in albuquerque