This is me shouting out to all the Korean speakers out there. I am planning to write a short paper for a semantics/pragmatics class on the meaning of the word "friend" in korean ( 친구), and I found good supporting data to explain the root "친-" ... Like:
친절하다 to be kind,
친교 모임 get-together,
친숙함 intimacy, and
친한 close,
but I was wondering if any of you know any words that carry the suffix ending " -구" that would help to explain the function of this word for friend in Korean. The only other piece of data that may be relevant is "할망구," or just "망구," which from my understanding, means "grandma" (in a very derogatory way). It may also be dialectal... (And obviously all of the sports words such as: 야구, 농구 are not using the same " -구" suffix.)
Please let me know if you can think of any examples.
Also, please let me know if you know of any other "friend" like words in Korean. (friend, buddy, acquaintance, colleague, etc...)
Thanks!
연희