친구

Etymology
.

Noun

 * 1) friend
 * 2)  fellow, chap, guy
 * 1)  fellow, chap, guy

Usage notes

 * usually implies an equality in the relationship. Due to the strict hierarchy of contemporary Korean society, tends to be used mainly for people of equal age, i.e. people who were born in the same year; or equal hierarchical status, e.g. same grade in a school. If a tenth-grader is friends with an eleventh-grader, the former will usually refer to the latter as  rather than as.
 * Before the division of Korea in 1945 and the installment of a Communist government in North Korea, the common word for "friend" was . had formal overtones and was not generally used by children. However, the North Korean government used  as its translation for "comrade," which made the word ideologically unwelcome in South Korea following the Korean War.  was thus replaced by  in South Korea.