Are there commonly used words to denote different gradations of friendship in English?
In English there is only one word for grade of friendship: friends. All of you agree that friends are different: with some of them you just drank beer few times, other you know for many years and you build strong bonds to them. There should be different words for that!
In Russian there are three words for different grades of friendship:
- You met few times.
- You meet regularly, spend time, but don't have strong bonds.
- You are important to each other, bonds are strong. (Usually people have 1-10 friends of that sort)
So I am interested, are there commonly used words to denote different gradations of friendship in English?
I think they might be: 1. Acquaintance 2. Friend/buddy/mate 3. Best friend
I know the last one may not be a true synonym, but it's the best I've got.
Here's a few colloquialisms to add to the spectrum:
- Friends with benefits: A sexual or near-sexual and emotional relationship between two people who don't expect or demand to share a formal romantic relationship.
- Frenemy: A portmanteau of the words fr(iend) and enemy, the term frenemy refers to someone who pretends to be a friend but actually is an enemy—a proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing in the world of friendships.
- BFF: (Best Friend Forever) Slang used primarily in the USA by teenage and young adult women to describe a girl friend or close best friend.
- Brother from another mother: a good friend that is more like a brother.
- Wingman: a friend (male) who helps you find a sexual partner for the night by speaking highly of you.
sources: Wikipedia and The Online Slang Dictionary
Plus a whole host of nuanced urban slang words used for friends such as cuz, homey, dawg, peeps, etc.
Here is my list of generic words (possibly colloquial but not so recently mainstream) in the friend/enemy scale:
- enemy
- adversary
- stranger
- passing acquaintance
- acquaintance
- associate
- colleague
- ally
- comrade
- companion
- friend
- pal/buddy/mate/chum (very colloquial/somewhat male directed)
- good friend
- best friend
Of course, some of those in the middle have connotations that are not necessarily 'friend-like', but they fill out the interior of the scale.
As I think Denis Leary once said,
A friend is someone who will help you move. A true friend is someone who will help you move a body.
Despite what others have said, an acquaintance is not really a friend.
- acquaintances
- associates
- buddy
- friends
- close friends
- best friends
- "brother in all but blood"/"brother from another mother"/"foster brother"/"soul brother" (and feminine forms using sister, instead)
I'll note that, at least in my group of associates, buddy is LESS than friend. it's someone that one willingly associates with regularly, often weekly, for some purpose, but is not actually up to friend.
Associate is of similar scope to buddy, but is work related in most connotations; in a non-work situation, it implies that they are an acquaintance with whom one has some shared activity.
Best friends isn't limited to 1 per person; its those friends with whom one shares emotional intimacy.
On the sexual score...
- one night stand - a one-off sexual liaison, often with a stranger.
- Fucktoy - crass term for for an associate with whom the relationship is exclusively sexual
- Bedbuddy - an associate with whom the relationship is almost exclusively sexual; little emotional intimacy. Often friends or buddies before the sex.
- friend with benefits - a friend, or even close friend, with whom a non-romantic sexual relationship exists.
- boyfriend/girlfriend - usually sexually and romantically exclusive relationship with building emotional intimacy. May also be non-sexual.
- partner - long term sexual &/or romantic exclusivity.
- spouse, husband, wife - legally, religiously, or socially long term pairbonded. Usually emotionally intimate, usually sexually intimate.
- mistress - sexual relationship or deeply intimate emotional relationship contrasted against an existing partner or spouse.
- other man - male equivalent to mistress, but having more negative connotations