The story
Parea (παρέα) is the Greek word for the people you spend your evenings with, and for the company they give. It took a long road to get there. Greek borrowed it from Ladino, the Spanish of the Sephardic Jews, whose great centre after the expulsion from Spain was Thessaloniki. Behind the Ladino lies Spanish pareja, a pair or couple, and behind that Latin par, equal. A word for two people became a word for a whole table of them.
Greek dictionaries give it several layers. A parea is a group of friends. It is also the habit of seeing each other, so two people who meet often are said to 'make parea'. It can even be a thing that keeps you company, such as the radio on a long drive. To keep someone parea is to sit with them so they are not alone, and the person who holds the group together is the soul of the parea.
The word builds easily. An antroparea is a group of men, a gynaikoparea a group of women, and a treloparea is a crazy bunch.
English gets close with crowd, crew or circle, and friends covers most of it. What it misses is that a parea is not just a list of people. It is a standing arrangement. If the parea meets on Thursdays, Thursday is spoken for, and nobody has to send a message to check.