It only sounds formal because it tweaks the French/Latin aesthetic borrowed into English, and not the Germanic.

I had a friend pass recently and this is oddly helpful. Thank you.

Thanks Brendan.

I, along with @2 find it timely and oddly helpful.

"Compassion," too, boils down to "suffering with."

for Cesaria Evora, Vaclav Havel, or Kim Jong Il?

And "companion," at bottom, just means "bread with," which I find wonderful.