"love, friendship," also "sexual love," late 14c., verbal noun from love (v.).
mid-15c., "friendly relations," especially between nations, from Old French amitie, earlier amistie (13c.) "friendship, affection, love, favor," from Vulgar Latin *amicitatem (nominative *amicitas) "friendship" (source also of Spanish amistad), corresponding to Latin amicitia, from amicus (adj.) "friendly," which ultimately is from amare "to love" (see Amy).
word-forming element meaning "friendship, fondness, tendency toward," and in recent use "abnormal attraction to," from Greek philia "affection," from philos "loving," which is of uncertain origin. Related: -philic.
c. 1200, "closeness of personal association, intimacy," from Old French familiarite and directly from Latin familiaritatem (nominative familiaritas) "intimacy, friendship, close acquaintance," from familiaris "friendly, intimate" (see familiar). Meaning "undue intimacy" is from late 14c. That of "state of being habitually acquainted" is from c. 1600.
"anything kept or given to be kept for the sake of the giver; a token of friendship," 1790, from keep (v.) + sake (n.1); an unusual formation on model of namesake; thus an object kept for the sake of the giver. The word was used c. 1830s in titles of popular holiday gift books containing beautiful engravings and mediocre poetry. As an adjective by 1839.
c. 1300, "state of being acquainted;" late 14c., "person with whom one is acquainted;" also "personal knowledge;" from Old French acointance "acquaintance, friendship, familiarity," noun of action from acointer "make known" (see acquaint). Acquaintant (17c.), would have been better in the "person known" sense but is now obsolete. Fowler regards acquaintanceship (1792) as a "needless variant."
1751, "adoption," from French affiliation, from Medieval Latin affiliationem (nominative affiliatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin affiliare "to adopt as a son," from ad "to" (see ad-) + filius "son" (see filial).
The figurative sense of "adoption by a society," in reference to a local chapter or branch, is recorded by 1799 (the verb affiliate in a related sense is from 1761). The meaning "friendship, relationship, association" is by 1852.
in the Facebook sense, attested from 2005, from the noun. Friend occasionally has been used as a verb in English since c. 1200 ("to be friends"), though the more usual verb for "join in friendship, act as a friend" is befriend. Related: Friended; friending. Old English had freonsped "an abundance of friends" (see speed (n.)); freondleast "want of friends;" freondspedig "rich in friends."
