In German, we make a very clear distinction between acquaintances and friends. The other day a friend of mine told me that she was about to meet a friend and immediately corrected herself that the other person was actually only an acquaintance. This got me thinking if there are languages without a clear distinction between acquaintances and friends and what the word "friend" actually means in different cultures.
As a German, I only call someone a friend, if I feel emotionally attached to this person. It's nice spending time with acquaintances, but with a friend, I can share all my joys and sorrows and we are there for each other no matter what.
How is it in your culture? Is "friend" a rather broad or narrow concept?
In Portuguese we do have this distinction. Basically, we have three different words:
AMIGO/A -> it means friend, basically. It assumes there is a more personal relation, but it doesn't have to be one of your best friends (melhores amigos), or someone you are really intimate with at all.
COLEGA -> a colleague, meaning someone you know and have a (usually) more formal or professional relation. It can be said of team, school or work mates. Using this word implies some complicity and does not exclude personal relation.
CONHECIDO/A -> just an acquaintance. It can be someone you only saw once and whose name you barely remember, or someone you see and exchange a few words everyday (in the line of the bus or whatever).
When referring to someone and wanting to clarify the level of intimacy one can always add more information, usually to the word "amigo" which has the broadest sense: one can say "um grande amigo" for a great friend, or someone you are really close to; or "um amigo íntimo" for an intimate friend, meaning someone who is close not only to you but also to your family, generally.
In Spain, we distinguish between a "conocido"(acquaintance) and an "amigo" (friend).
A "conocido" is a person that you met some day but you don't have confidence with.
We add adjetives or modifiers in order to express how deep is the friendship in "amigo". If you have a friend who you can share your deepest sadness and feelings, is a "amigo íntimo" (a close friend). For a man, an "amiguete" is a friend to spend time having fun, watching soccer, drinking or doing some social activities. And probably his wife will name his "amiguetes" as "amigotes" in a dismissively way...
Love this topic!
I think the word "friend" is so overused in English, it has no meaning... I wish Facebook would delineate!! :)
2. That's a tough one. Someone recently asked here how you would call your husband in Russian if you are a gay, so this one is similar, sort of like a relationship that doesn't have a name because it is not the most common/traditional one. But I would still use drug/drugarica, if that's the nature of your relationship, that is, if you don't treat or think of this person as your senior but rather as equal, regardless of age. It's not set in stone anyway, the age part is just general guidelines.
3. As far as Serbo-Croatian countries go, what I wrote is based on my region only. In Croatia they don't use drug/drugarica at all, but use prijatelj/prijateljica instead, the way we would use drug/drugarica.
