What difference is there, if any, between the words "mate" and "friend"?


The OED says that the relevant senses of mate come from "Middle Low German māt comrade", and suggests that we "Compare early modern Dutch maat (1546), maet (1573) friend, partner".

The OED traces the English sense "A companion, fellow, comrade, friend; a fellow worker or business partner" back to 1380, and notes that this is "Freq. as the second element in compounds, as bed-, flat-mate, etc. (in which it is generally less colloq. than when standing alone)".

@FiorenzaMella

Comments

Post a Comment

Please leave your comment in English, French, Italian, Spanish or Dutch

Innovation

Lost In Sorrow by Jerry Shawback

Jerry's drawings are always intense. Black & white drawings, perfect drawn lines that make you feel an unexpected emotional depth. That's Jerry's talent. He draws bidimensionally but he involves us threedimensionally. His solo echoes in an orchestra of profound sounds. @FiorenzaMella
Read more

To Say Before Going to Sleep by Rilke

To Say Before Going to Sleep by Rilke I would like to sing someone to sleep, to sit beside someone and be there. I would like to rock you and sing softly and go with you to and from sleep. I would like to be the one in the house who knew: The night was cold. And I would like to listen in and listen out into you, into the world, into the woods. The clocks shout to one another striking, and one sees to the bottom of time. And down below one last, strange man walks by and rouses a strange dog. And after that comes silence. I have laid my eyes upon you wide; and they hold you gently and let you go when something stirs in the dark. (from The Book of Images, translated by Edward Snow in 1991)
Read more