How does "make" work in "What kind of person makes a good friend?"

What kind of person makes a good friend?

I have seen this kind of sentence several times; never understood why it is normal in English. It means that there are people with specific traits of character who can be good friends, OK. But why "make"? It seems to be a sentence, where person can create a friend for somebody and not out of himself, but out of somebody else.

Solution 1:

Make has a lengthy list of possible interpretations, see the American Heritage Dictionary entry.

The sense of make in this context seems to fall somewhere around:

16. To be suited for: Oak makes strong furniture.

17. To develop into: will make a fine doctor.

As far as the similarity to other senses of make, the construction is similar to one in which there is a straightforward object or a predicative complement:

She made him a good husband [object-oriented predicative complement]

5.a. To cause to be or become

She made (him) a teddy bear [object]

2.To bring into existence by shaping, modifying, or putting together material; construct

The context usually makes clear which sense of make is intended.

There are, of course, other options than make in most situations, but they tend to sound more formal:

What kind of person is suited to be a good friend?

What kind of person develops into a good friend?

Solution 2:

It is OED sense 21a of the verb to make - meaning to amount t0, to fully constitute, to be the essential criterion of etc.

21(a). transitive. [Compare the classical Latin and post-classical Latin use of facere in e.g. regem non faciunt opes (Seneca), non tonsura facit monachum (Neckam, a1217), and the Middle French and French use in e.g. l'habit ne faict poinct le moine (Rabelais, 1532).] Of an adjunct or feature: to be sufficient to constitute; to be the essential criterion of. Chiefly in proverbial or quasi-proverbial uses, mainly in negative contexts.

1340 Ayenbite (1866) 165 (MED) Þe cloþinge ne makeþ naȝt þane monek, ne þe armes þane knyȝt.

?a1425 Constit. Masonry (Royal 17 A.i) l. 726 in J. O. Halliwell Early Hist. Freemasonry in Eng. (1844) 38 Gode maneres maken a mon.

c1475 tr. A. Chartier Quadrilogue (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1974) 231
But now [to] [MS two] can guerde a swerde and doo vpon an habirgeon suffiseth to make a nwe capteyn.

a1500 (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) v. l. 3877 Ȝoure purpure may noucht prestis ma.

1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. v. sig. Hiii
One swalow maketh not sommer.

1649 R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 119 Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage.

1734 A. Pope Ess. Man: Epist. IV 193 Worth makes the Man, and want of it the Fellow.

1859 Ld. Tennyson Guinevere in Idylls of King 250 And courtliness, and the desire of fame, And love of truth, and all that makes a man.

1861 Temple Bar 3 256 A long beard does not make a philosopher.

1893 National Observer 7 Oct. 531/2 One actress does not make a play.

1933 J. Hilton Lost Horizon 3 Still, it did happen—and it goes some way to show that clothes make the man, doesn't it? 1990
Atlantic Nov. 8/1 The quick and dirty reference to one example that supports his argument and two that don't hardly makes a good start.