mateship

Noun

mateship (usually uncountable, plural mateships)

1. (countable, uncountable, usually) The post of mate on a ship; a posting as mate.
   • Paul Jones profited by his brother′s position and counsel to improve himself in navigation and other professional studies, and was so successful in the endeavour, that he was deemed worthy of being appointed, on his return to Whitehaven, to a third mateship in a vessel in the slave-trade.1841, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers′ Edinburgh Journal, volume 10, page 263
2. (countable, obsolete, usually, whaling) A type of contract between ships to cooperate and share the proceeds of an expedition.
   • […]as, for instance, the contract termed mateship, by which one whaling-ship meeting another forms a partnership in the proceeds of the expedition.1835, Francis Hilliard, American Law: The Formative Years, page 122
3. (usually) Fellowship; companionship.
   • “Don′t mind if I do,” I answered, and thus begun a mateship that in the course of the next few months was to yield to each of us a fairly big experience of adventure, and, what was more acceptable to me, a good round sum in cash.1898, G. Firth Scott, The Last Lemurian, page 6
4. (Australia, New Zealand, usually) Friendship, particularly between men, such as develops in shared adversity; solidarity.
   • In traditional Australian culture, “mateship” was expected to bind people not only with their “best mates” or their “great mates” but also with their fellow-miners, fellow-shearers, fellow-“diggers”, fellow-soldiers, or fellow-footballers, and this expectation is one of this culture′s most enduring...1997, Anna Wierzbicka, Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese, page 117
   • While the camaraderie of war is usually an unspoken assumption, it seems peculiar that mateship, usually considered to be the core of the digger ethos and the ‘spirit of the Anzac’, barely appears in the diggers′ own expressions at this time.2004, Graham Seal, Inventing Anzac: The Digger And National Mythology, page 77
5. (countable, usually) A relationship based on mating.
   • The mateships of the three last-named animals are solitary, though in the case of wolves, the separated members of various mateships gather in packs during the winter months.1942, Fred August Moss, Edward Lee Thorndike, Comparative Psychology, page 370
   • Further, in most cultures without systems of codified laws, long-term mateships are ritually sanctioned by the community. If we are not to have too provincial a conception of marriage, these mateships should also count as marriages.2005, David J. Buller, Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology And The Persistent Quest For Human Nature, page 259