infinitepossibilities

"No, there’s nothing going on between us. We’re just friends."

people often hear the above quote from those who vehemently deny that s/he has a special relationship with an xx or an xy. well, if those people had lived in the olden times, they wouldn’t have dared use the "we’re just friends" bit.

well, the curious might find the following etymology/word history interesting:

ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, from Old English frond; see pr- in Indo-European roots

A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amcus "friend" and am "I love" is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos "friend" and phile "I love." In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frond, the Old English word for "friend," was simply the present participle of the verb fron, "to love." The Germanic root behind this verb is *fr-, which meant "to like, love, be friendly to." Closely linked to these concepts is that of "peace," and in fact Germanic made a noun from this root, *frithu-, meaning exactly that. Ultimately descended from this noun are the personal names Frederick, "peaceful ruler," and Siegfried, "victory peace." The root also shows up in the name of the Germanic deity Frigg, the goddess of love, who lives on today in the word Friday, "day of Frigg," from an ancient translation of Latin Veneris dis, "day of Venus."

Source: http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/friend