The Feel of a Word: mate
Mate
Mate is a word with a very long history in English. It comes to us from Middle Low German where it was a shortened form of the Middle High German gamazze which breaks down into a suffix ge- meaning ‘in company with’ and maze meaning ‘meat’, or food generally. A mate was a person that you shared your meal with. A friend. Mate turns up in English in the 1300s. It has regular use in English through the centuries, acquiring other more specialised meanings as it goes.
Mate was often combined with another word to give context, so messmate, schoolmate, and, in the days of convicts in Australia, hut-mates. These were the convicts who were employed in road gangs and shared a hut where they were confined for the night.
The word didn’t take on the extra burden of partnership until mates adapted to colonial life in Australia. This sense lingers on. A good mate has that extra something that makes a mate more than just a friend. A good mate will stand by you in times of trouble, will be on your side, will help you out when you need it.
A mate in colonial times was most definitely a good thing to have. For a shearer or a miner, a mate was your partner in the enterprise. The bush was dangerous. Men working in the bush needed to work in pairs, usually on the understanding that any gains would be shared equally as a consequence.
‘..the work, which a man cannot face alone, requiring always the assistance of “neighbours”, or “mates”, or “partners” as they are severally called, even in the minute details.’ 1838, Thoughts on Convict Management A Maconochie
Mateship had this solid foundation of blokes at work sharing hardships and dangers, and successes and failures in a harsh colonial world. There was a tinge of anti-authority in it as well. Everyone dreamed of being their own boss, of making good in a new land which held the promise of opportunities and riches that were not available to them back in England. And in some cases, when the mates had been through the convict experience, it was even more important to them to escape authority and the law.
The dream of instant wealth intensified as soon as gold was discovered. Here again the diggers needed to work in collaboration with others. No one could cover enough ground in prospecting on their own and a mine could not be handled by one person alone. So mates were loyal to each other but heaven help anyone who was outside the bounds of mateship. It was also a fiercely masculine bond at this point.
The spirit of mateship was romanticised towards the end of the colonial century by the bush balladists in the Bulletin, and by writers like Henry Lawson. This put such a glow on the idea of mateship that it could hardly be thought to be capable of becoming more positive in its connotations.
But then the mates went to war. This added the patina of heroic sacrifice to the underlying ideas of loyalty and sharing.
The boy had joined his mates in one of the little cemeteries on the Western front. 1919
The war experience translated to the post-war worker’s struggle. The sense of mateship in unionism in fighting the bosses was strong.
This tribute was paid to a member of the AWU in 1938:
He was a genuine Labor stalwart, a true mate and comrade in every sense of the word.
As the 20th century progressed, mate was rather overworked and in the process lost a good deal of meaning. The particular meanings that sprang from colonial days and the war, were no longer relevant. Mate as a form of address was used lightly, so that almost anyone could be referred to as your mate. It came to be that a mate was not much more than an acquaintance.
A mate in Australia is simply that which a bloke must have around him. Mates do not necessarily want to know you. 1972 Knockers Kenneth Dunstan
So much depends on the tone of voice in which we say things. The term bastard can be affectionate or offensive, depending on context and the way we say it. Similarly mate these days is a tricky thing. It can be said affectionately or ironically, threateningly or cajolingly.
This is an example of mate used threateningly:
His last words as Whitlam walked out of the door concluded with that most ominous of political salutations. It ended in `mate' is all Whitlam can remember. Sydney Morning Herald, 1990 [Nick Whitlam and Malcolm Turnbull]
And finally there is mate used ironically, and the best example of this is the story of the policeman who bailed up a sovereign citizen attempting to cross the border into Queensland. The sovcit refused to give his details but asked the policeman searchingly: ‘Am I a man?’ The policeman replied: ‘I don’t know, mate. It’s 2020. How do you self-identify?’
So where are the mates today? It is thought that women attempted to overcome the blokiness of mateship by taking on the form of address and using it from one woman to another. I think that younger women are divided on this, some of them seeing themselves as just as capable of mateship as men, others regarding mate as not part of the female vocabulary. It is still possible for men to use it as a benign form of address when they don’t know the other man’s name or want to indicate general bonhomie. Thanks mate! But it is also capable of being used with a terrible affected drawl as a putdown of the older generation of men. Gaaadayyyy maaaate! And as usual the word survives in set phrases rather better than it does as a standalone. A good mate of mine. Good on ya, mate!
It has to be said that in a modern world of gender equality and equal opportunity, mateship seems a bit quaint. It is only when we are harking back to the ethos of an earlier time that we would call on the power of the idea of mateship. The form of address, perhaps because it has so little real content left in it, still survives and can be used in a range of contexts with great subtlety and dexterity.