Other forms: mates
A mate is a friend, or an animal's breeding partner. All right, mate, a running mate, choose a mate.
In British and Australian speech mate is the standard friendly address between men and increasingly between anybody. In biology a mate is a breeding partner and mate is the verb. At sea a mate is a ship's officer. Note that the word came from a Low German word for a messmate — somebody you share food with.
1nounfriendA friend.
“I'm going to the pub with a few mates after work.”
2nounmateAn animal's breeding partner.
“The male bird sings to attract a mate.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
mate is a companion or partner.
Middle Low German mate means a messmate, from a root meaning meat or food. A mate is one who shares food.
Proto-Indo-European
*meh₂d- (wet)
Middle English
mate
English, today
mate
Built from
From Middle English mate. From Middle English mate, a borrowing from Middle Low German mate (“messmate”) (replacing Middle English mett, mette (“table companion, mate, partner”), from Old English ġemetta (“sharer of food, table-guest”)), from Old Saxon gimato, derived from Proto-Germanic gamatjô, itself from ga- (“together”) (related to German - and Dutch ge-) + matjô (from matiz (“food”)), related to Old English mete (“food”)). From the same Middle Low German source stems German Low German Maat (“journeyman, companion”), German Maat (“naval non-commissioned officer”). Cognates include stq Moat (“friend, buddy, comrade, mate”), Dutch maat (“mate, partner, colleague, friend”). More at Old English ġe-, English co-, English meat. a doublet of maat. Compare typologically compāniō (whence companion) (< con- + panis + -ō), однока́шник (< одно- + ка́ша + -ник).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA