Matey

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A friendly companion or fellow crew member on a ship ; an informal way to greet someone in a pirate or nautical style
2. A close associate or companion, especially among sailors ; a casual, sometimes playful term used to address another person like a pirate
3. Someone who shares a close relationship as a ship crew member or friend ; a greeting that imitates the style often associated with pirates

Etymology: "Matey" is "mate" with the diminutive or familiar suffix "-y" added, and "mate" itself traces back to a Proto-Germanic word meaning a companion who shares your food, from "ga-" ("together") and a root for "meal" or "table." That root survives in the Old Saxon "gimato" and Middle Low German "mate," both meaning a messmate or someone you eat with. English picked up "mate" in the Middle English period, and it originally carried that same sense of a shipboard or household companion. The sailor connection is the key to the modern sense. A ship's mate was originally the officer who shared a cabin or watch with the captain, and the everyday word for a shipmate lent itself to the cheerful, slightly rough way sailors and dockworkers greeted one another. Adding "-y" turned a plain word for a comrade into an affectionate form of address, which is why "matey" can sound warm, teasing, or faintly piratical depending on who is speaking.

Synonyms: friend, buddy, pal, companion, comrade

Antonyms: enemy, rival, foe, stranger, opponent