the.com/friendship
the only relationship you sign up for with zero paperwork and infinite stakes
means A voluntary bond of mutual affection, trust, and care between people who are not bound by family or romance.
from From Old English frēondscipe, joining frēond ("friend") with the suffix -scipe (the ancestor of modern -ship), which marks a state or condition. The root of frēond is wonderfully telling: it comes from the present participle of a Germanic verb meaning "to love" — related to Old English frēogan, "to love, to free." So a friend was, quite literally, "one who loves," and friendship the condition of being loved. The same ancient kinship of "love" and "freedom" survives, distantly, in the word free.
- survival math
- Strong social ties rival quitting smoking for longevity
- brain sync
- Close friends' neural responses literally mirror each other
- the dunbar cap
- Humans manage about 150 stable relationships, max
- primate roots
- Baboons with more friends raise more surviving offspring
- slow build
- Real friendship takes roughly 200 hours together
david and jonathan — biblical friendship sealed by covenant, referenced in 1 samuel as archetypal bond
montaigne and boethius — 16th century french philosopher's famous essay 'on friendship' exploring his bond with étienne de la boétie
lewis and tolkien — c.s. lewis and j.r.r. tolkien's oxford literary friendship, 1926 onwards, documented in their letters