Patty Popp

February 23rd, 2017

HONORS 211 C

Language Commentary #2: Understanding “Amigo”

In considering the nature of interpersonal relationships across cultures, I believe it is of

paramount importance to explore the notion of friendship. Before delving into this topic in

further detail, it is important to recognize that, as Anna Wierzbicka noted in her book,

Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words, the concept and connotations of “friend” are

important in Anglo culture, but this notion does not necessarily have exact equivalents in other

languages. The Russian drug and podruga, for instance, differ greatly from the English concept

of friend. In the Western world, however, the concepts encapsulated in words such as amicus in

Latin, ami in French, and amico in Italian do indeed share similarities and do reflect a common

cultural tradition with the English concept of friend, but they also display a few differences

(Wierzbicka). In order to further articulate this point, I will choose to explore the Spanish word,

“amigo”, which roughly translates to friend, comrade, buddy, and mate (“Amigo”).

Etymologically, “amigo” is derived from the Latin amicus and the Latin amo, meaning “I

love”. Apart from “amigo”, other Spanish words derived from the same base include “amor” –

love and “amante” – lover. This component of love at the root of this salient word in the Spanish

language is particularly evident in certain Spanish proverbs concerned with the notion of

friendship (Ward):

Cuando tu amigo pide, no hay mañana.

When your friend makes a request, there is no tomorrow.

 Quien encuentra un amigo, encuentra un tesoro.

One who finds a friend, finds a treasure.

No hay mejor espejo que el amigo viejo.

There is no better mirror than an old friend.

As one can tell from the aforementioned proverbs, a sense of reliability, appreciation, and

openness are extremely valuable traits of a relationship between two friends in Spanish culture.

However, as the Spanish language becomes increasingly more Americanized, “amigo”, much

like the word “friend” in English, has weakened over time, as is evident by the gradual

emergence of the use of more modifiers to clarify and emphasize the level of closeness of the

bond between two people (e.g. “amigo intimo” – close friend, “amigo bueno” – good friend,

“amigo del alma” -very close friend, etc.). Similarly, the Spanish language mirrors the notion of

making friends – hacerse amigos – rather than choosing friends, which as Wierzbicka noted,

implies a desire for a large number (rather than a select few) and a somewhat indiscriminate

approach where no special, individual qualities are necessarily required and no exclusive

relationship is foreseen. This notion of friendship being viewed as a possessed object and the

most valuable commodity or treasure a person can have ties back to Old English and Old Norse

and still prevails to this day in proverbs and everyday conversation (Romano).

Unlike the somewhat superficial notion of friendship in America, an “amigo” in Spanish

culture is a person whom one knows well, likes, trusts, and regards with affection (“Amigo”).

However, in considering friendship as a spectrum, amigo lies somewhere between the modern

English connotation of friend and the Russian word drug. The lack of political freedom in Russia
for many years yielded close relationships, as trusting someone as a friend could mean putting

one’s life in their hands, and the concept of drug describes an intense relationship implying

mutual help, prolonged periods of time spent in each other’s company, ultimate trust in each

other, complete openness with each other, and a constant desire to do good things for one

another, almost serving as a binding contract between two people (Wierzbicka). American and

Spanish culture do not share a linguistic or even cultural equivalent to “drug” because both

societies share individualistic tendencies and thus, one would find it difficult to trust another

person to such an intense extent (Wierzbicka).

In trying to account for the multifaceted nature of “amigo”, I would propose the

following explication, making use of the universal concepts which fall under the Natural

Semantic Metalanguage:

Amigo
(a) everyone knows: many people think about some other people like this:
(b) I know this person well
(c) I think good things about this person
(d) I want to be with this person often
(e) I want to do things with this person often
(f) I want this person to know what I think
(g) I don’t want many other people to know these things
(h) when I am with this person, I feel something good
(i) when I think about this person, I feel something good
(j) I think this person thinks the same about me
(k) I think like this about this person

In the explication of amigo, component (b) refers to personal knowledge relating to one’s

familiarity with one’s “amigo” – this familiarity goes beyond mere acquaintanceship, but still

can be considered superficial if looking through the lens of the Russian notion of drug.
Component (c) refers to the valued personal qualities of one’s “amigo” that allows them to be

regarded fondly and with affection. Components (d) and (e) allude to the fact that one’s

relationship with one’s “amigo” is enjoyable. Components (f) and (g) highlight the certain degree

of intimacy and exclusiveness that comes out of the trust and confidence shared between two

“amigos”. Component (h) refers to the “fun-to-be-with” aspects of “amigo” that is paralleled in

the modern connotations of the English friend and lastly, component (i) refers to the affection

felt between two “amigos”.

 Works Cited

"amigo." American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
"Amigo." WordReference.com. Word Reference, n.d. Web.

Romano, Manuela. "The Scope of Metaphor for Friendship in Old English and Old Norse: A
Contrastive Analysis." (1998): n. pag.

Ward, Caroline. National Proverbs in the Principal Languages of Europe. London: J.W. Parker,
1842. Print.
Wierzbicka, Anna. Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish,
German, and Japanese. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.