girlfriend

But why not girlfiend? Look:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/...term=girlfiend

Oh, I didn't know "girlfiend". I'm sorry.

Moskbnea:

Thank you very much for the correction. In fact, I meant "girlfRiend" :-)

Alexander:

You said "Why not girlfiend?" --- The problem is that I don't know an equivalent of the word "girlfiend" in any language I know apart from English ... :-p

Herzblatt — Schmerzblatt. ☺

amanto :) - amariganto :(

koramikino - hororamikino :D

Thank you Pfirsichbäumchen,

In Amazigh, when we don't have a direct equivalent, we can use periphrasis ^^ --- but I need to think about that one, "girlfiend/Herzblatt/Schmerzblatt" :-p

Tanemmirt

Wow ... it seems that all languages have ALL what they need except mine :(( ... Or, maybe I don't know it well enough :-p

I made that up myself. That word actually doesn’t exist. It’s the same with ‘girlfiend’, I suppose—only a wordplay. ☺

In Hebrew we don't have a special word for "girlfriend"(=koramikino). We simply say "ĥaverá", which literally means "a friend" (feminine).

chaver = a friend (male)
chavera = a friend (female)

So, when you say "my friend" in Hebrew, it depends on the context whether you mean "my boyfriend"/"my girlfriend", or simply "my friend".

Thank you Pfirsichbäumchen for the explanation.

I checked your words in this dictionary and I didn't find them: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/

This kind of problems is often encountered by literary translators, so they build a neologism in their own language.

Eldad:
Thank you for the information. This is the same thing in Amazigh:

Ameddakel - friend/boyfriend
Tameddakelt - [female] friend/girlfriend

A friend of mine from the Canary islands had a girlfriend. He is one of those who want to revive the Amazigh/Guanche culture in the islands and he learnt Amazigh. While he was learning the language, he asked me: "How to say 'girlfriend' in Amazigh". When I told him "tameddakelt", he didn't want to use it telling me: "Me niego a llamar mi novia 'amiga'" (I don't want to call my girlfriend 'friend'".

He prefered a calque of Spanish "novia" which also means "bride", so he called his girlfriend "tislit-inu" (which literally means "my bride" in Amazigh :-p).

In Arabic, I think that there is a solution: "ghariimah" (غريمة).

لقد ذهبت غريمته إلى الصين
His girlfriend went to China

P.S. Eldad, here, we are also talking about the word "girlFIEND" (girl + fiend) ^^

Eldad:
(This is one of my 1 million questions)

I read that Dutch word "gabber" (which also refers to a form of techno) means "friend" in that language. Isn't it a laonword taken from Hebrew?

Yes, so it seems!
Indeed, a a loanword from Hebrew, from chavér :)

And, indeed, "girlFIEND", as you wrote ;-)))

Last but not least, I believe I knew the word غريمة in Arabic, but I didn't remember it meant "girlfriend". Is this the word they usually use for "girlfriend", and is it also used in colloquial Arabic? (I'm not sure).

Eldad:
Wow, so "gabber" was a Hebrew word :-) I didn't know that! Thank you for confirming. "Gabber" is the name of the most aggressive and hardest form of techno (also called "hardcore"). I liked to listen this music in the late 1990's and the early 2000's. A famous compilation of gabber was "Thunderdome". Some Spanish radio stations also aired some gabber songs but it was rare. Makina and happy hardcore (funny and very quick techno music) were more popular forms of the genre called 'hardcore techno'). Gabber was popular especially in the Netherlands. Makina and happy hardcore are popular in Spain. (For makina, check this and if you have time, listen to the first 10 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe8dxup0DQI).

As for "غريمة" [ghariimah]:

I think that it is stronger than "girlfriend": maybe it means "love/beloved one" - it's more romantic. However, I am not sure whether "صديقة" (ṣadiiqah) is also used in standard Arabic in the meaning of "girlfriend". I'll try to pay attention when I watch US films subtitled in Arabic (virtually the only kind of programs I watch on Arab channels - generally, the subtitles translation is excellent).

In dialectic Arabic, that's another story :-) I'm gonna speak about Algerian dialectic Arabic: we have "ṣeḥḥebt-u" (< ṣaaḥibat-u-hu - صاحبته) which means "his [female] friend" and "his girlfriend", but in Algiers Arabic, we also have "madamma" (madammt-u - his girlfriend) - The word "madamma" comes from French "Madame" (Madam), however it's used for "girlfriend" or "young girl":

Ǧab madammt-u === He brought his girlfriend

Kac madammat? === Any girls/Any chicks/Any girfrields?

The word "madamma" has also the meaning of "effiminate man":

Yehdeṛ ki l-madamma === He talks like a girl. (Here, it's just a simile)

Ṛaw ǧa hadak l-madamma === The girlie man has come.

When used in the meaning of "effiminate man", "madamma" doesn't automatically mean "homosexual".

Another question: does Hebrew word "chaver/khaver" have a cognate in Arabic?

Amastan:
Thanks for the elaborate explanations.

I'll have to think whether "chaver"/"khaver" has any cognate in Arabic. Actually, when I wrote you the word today, I tried to recall whether I know of any cognate, and none came to my mind. I'll check it and keep you posted.

Regarding "gabber", I guess it comes from Hebrew, as it must be pronounced as "khabber", very similar to the Hebrew word. But I didn't know this word until today, when I learned it in your explanation.