true friend

Noun

true friend (plural true friends)

1. (uncommon) A word in a language that bears a resemblance to a word in another language and has an equivalent meaning.
   • True friends are such words when they have precisely or approximately the same meanings in one or more other languages. […] I have written many times that true friends are more numerous than false friends, particularly in the scitech vocabulary, where however there is an important minority of key...1995, Peter Newmark, “Paragraphs on Translation”, in The Linguist, volumes 34–35, page 113
   • Ronnie Ferguson, author of Italian False Friends (1994: ix), rightly emphasizes that “[a]ccurate translation . . . as well as the proper appreciation of advanced Italian texts, hinge on the confident handling of key words”; among other examples he mentions key words such as attuale (present /...2001, Christoph Gutknecht, “Translation”, in Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller, editors, The Handbook of Linguistics, Oxford, Oxon: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, published 2003, →ISBN, page 698
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see true, friend.
   • There is a well-known proverb, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." Americans have always been our true friends. They stretched out warm helping hands to us when we were in direst need. The Fulbright Program, which was initiated in the throes of the Korean War, has been one such helping hand.2010, Lee Myung-bak, “Foreword”, in Jai Ok Shim, James F. Larson, Frederick F. Carriere, Horace H. Underwood, Fulbright in Korea’s Future: A 60th Anniversary Commemorative History, Seoul, South...