bedfellow means one with whom one shares a bed. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
bedfellow is pronounced /ˈbɛdˌfɛloʊ/.
Why “bedfellow” is a great word
BEDFELLOW — [Noun] An associate or ally, especially one that is considered unusual or improbable. From Middle English *bedfelawe*, a compound of *bed* (a piece of furniture for sleeping) and *fellow* (a companion or associate), first attested around 1450. Unlike "ally" (which suggests a formal, strategic partnership) or "roommate" (which denotes a simple matter of shared quarters), a bedfellow implies an intimate, often incongruous union forged by circumstance rather than choice. It is the rival politician sharing a stage for a single vote, the virtue that keeps company with necessity, or the profound boredom that makes solitary strangers confide on a long night journey—a testament to the pragmatic, sometimes uncomfortable, unions that necessity engineers in the dark.
noun
- One with whom one shares a bed.“Yong budding Virgin, faire, and freſh,& ſweet, / Whether away, or whether is thy aboade? / Happy the Parents of ſo faire a childe; / Happier the man whom fauourable ſtars / A lots thee for his louely bedfellow.”
- An associate, often an otherwise improbable one.“They say that "misfortune makes men acquainted with strange bedfellows". The old hereditary Whig Cabinet ministers must, no doubt, by this time have learned to feel themselves at home with strange neighbours at their elbows.”