That’s a poor title, I know. I just couldn’t think of a good way to phrase it.
I just got back from Australia and was called “mate” on a fairly regular basis. I believe that the British use the term frequently as well. In Mexico, “amigo” is thrown about regularly. IME, in America we don’t really have a similar usage. Are we less friendly? Are we more formal?
I don’t have a good theory but I’m curious to the thoughts of others.
Depends on the part of the country. I think in some parts of the US ‘buddy’, ‘dude’ or ‘man’ (or any number of other slang terms for the same concept) are the alternative used terms in a similar way to ‘mate’ and ‘amigo’ (which just means ‘friend’ btw, not mate).
I haven’t noticed that the US is any less friendly than either the UK or Mexico…Aussies though DO seem to be pretty friendly with certain caveats.
Maybe it is regional but I don’t remember the last time that someone called me buddy, pal, friend, boss or chief that wasn’t using it sarcastically. Or maybe it’s just me.
Well, America is, in general, immature and Puritanical about many things. I wonder if American men subconsciously associate “mate” with “mating”, and so shy away from using it around, well, their mates.
Nah, dude. I mean, yes to the general proposition, but I don’t think it applies in this case. It’s true, though, that if I hear someone talking about their “mate” (and the speaker is clearly American), I’m more inclined to think they’re talking about their spouse/significant other than just, like, a friend. So it’s not so much that it’s a “dirty” word we’d never use, but that it does have more of a romantic or sexual connotation, so we use it in that way instead.
Definitely regional. ‘Boss’ and ‘chief’ (or jefe) gets used a lot where I live, as well as ‘man’. In other regions they have other slang for the same thing. I think the US is just pretty diverse, linguistically, so terms like that really do vary widely across the country. What you get on the east coast is going to be very different than the west, or north verse south and even within those large regions you have a lot of variation. Some of it is impacted a lot by the various ethnic groups that are in the region…upstate New York verse Pennsylvania for instance have different slang.
Didn’t take it as snark, and no worries…figured I’d just point it out to be pedantic. I think your overall theme was correct, and ‘amigo’ is definitely roughly equivalent to ‘mate’ as it’s used in some parts of Mexico. Even there they have regional slang that differs, as you probably also know.
And besides the regional variation, there’s also cultural differences, not only ethnic cultures, but the cultures of different social groups. So while I constantly call people “dude” and “man”, I’d never in a million years call someone “bro/brah” (unironically, anyway), but frat guys/sorority girls, surfers/skaters, and various other (predominantly white, IME) groups use these all the time.
The equivalent term would be “dude” or “man”. “Dude” is a bit more familiar than “man.” “Boss” is frequently heard amongst people of Caribbean origin, so it spreads around a little. “Chief” is not generally used anymore. “Buddy” and “pal” are certainly used but they’re not as popular, though for some reason “buddy” is very often used in the Armed Forces, albeit with a slightly different connotation.
The equivalent term would be “dude” or “man”. “Dude” is a bit more familiar than “man.” “Boss” is frequently heard amongst people of Caribbean origin, so it spreads around a little. “Chief” is not generally used anymore. “Buddy” and “pal” are certainly used but they’re not as popular, though for some reason “buddy” is very often used in the Armed Forces, albeit with a slightly different connotation.
I use “mate” strictly online, where I’m in front of a more international audience anyway. For some reason whenever I’m being particularly jokey or sarcastic I even like to write “m8”. But in real life, “man” and “dude” are my go-tos. It’s true that “mate” does have a slightly more romantic association in the USA, which is why it’s probably not a favorite.