friend

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person you know well and like, and who is not a family member.

   She has been my best friend since we were children.

2. 2
   noun

   Someone who helps or supports you.

   In hard times he proved to be a true friend.

3. 3
   noun

   A person you are slightly or indirectly acquainted with.

   He is more of an online friend than someone I really know.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Friend is an Old English word, first recorded in Beowulf, and comes from an ancient root meaning “to love.” Free derives from the same root.

From Middle English freend, frend, frende, freynde, friend, frind, frond, frund, vrend, vryend, from Old English frēond, frīond (“friend”, literally “loving [one], lover”), from Proto-West Germanic *friund, from Proto-Germanic *frijōndz (“friend, loved one”), from Proto-Indo-European *preyH- (“to please; to love”), roughly equivalent to free + -nd. See also Friday. Cognates Cognate with Scots freend (“friend”), Yola friend, vriene (“friend”), North Frisian frinj, frün (“friend”), Saterland Frisian Fjund, Früünd (“friend”), West Frisian freon, freondinne (“friend”), Cimbrian bròint, vròint (“fr…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary