I think once you hear the statement that Eskimos have 1000 words for snow you never forget it. At least I never have. True or not, it makes sense that something that is so integral to a community would be described with such specificity. This makes me wonder why we really rarely use another word for "friend" in our regular day to day lives. These are such complex and varied relationships they should be described with more precision.
I started thinking about this after realizing I had just read these three books. The False Friend, The Last Friend, and A Friend of the Family. In all these books, the friendships are puzzling and complicated. People drawn together for various reasons. All three of these stories have somewhat ambiguous endings and all three would make for a good book club choice with your ....friends.
1 comment:
When I teach the library's Facebook classes, I always comment on how interesting it is that friending/unfriending are now verbs! There are good alternatives to friend - pal, buddy, confidante, mate (British/Aussie), amigo, partner, etc. But you're right, we tend to settle on plain old friend most of the time.
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