It's nice when you get a chance to destroy this or that myth. There is a popular belief that a bosom friend is the one with whom you can have a good drink and talk about life. Is it so? Let's find out.
A scattering of options
Perhaps this is the rare case when the origin of an expression causes so many different versions. Let's give them a list to make it easier for the reader to perceive:
- Drinking buddy. This is the most popular version, and so far most are sure that this is the way it is. What is there to hide, our people love to drink, and the one with whom it is best to do it is worth its weight in gold.
- Lapti. Adam's apple was also called the tool used to make bast shoes. In other words, people have one Adam's apple for two: they are from the same family.
- In Russia, Adam's apple was of great importance, because, according to popular beliefs, it protected the throat. And the throat, in modern terms, is multifunctional: they are told, eaten, drunk. Therefore, a bosom friend is someone with whom you can share all this, that is, eat, drink and talk. And again, this version refers us to the theme of the feast.
But thanks to the dictionary there is another possibility.
The most likely version
Howwhatever one may say, I would not like to believe that everything closes and closes on the topic of vodka. Here you need to analyze the colloquial dialect, where "kady" is equal to "when". Thus, the "old friend" comes out. That is the meaning of the phrase "bosom friend." True, the most common version of the origin of the expression is still the one that is more alive than the living among the people. In other words, only that friend with whom many buckets of alcohol have been eaten can be considered a bosom friend. We, of course, do not want to believe in the truth of such an interpretation, but suddenly it was so. In any case, since we are talking about ancient times, it is up to the reader to decide which side to join.
There are so few true friends
Be that as it may, no matter on what grounds such a person appears, and bosom friends are trusted undeniably and unconditionally. And this is another argument, albeit not a rational one, in favor of the “sober” origin of the expression. A drinking buddy, when people have already left a certain state of consciousness, can hardly be trusted with anything. Especially if you practice this business often.
There are very few friends who have gone through fire, water and copper pipes with a person. Maybe no more than three, and that's at best. Usually there are one or two of them.
After we have revealed all the possible options for the origin of phraseology, it's time to answer the main question: "What does a bosom friend mean?" This is a spiritually close person. Friendship with him has years or decades. But mental kinship is paramount here.hallmark.
