camarade

buddy, mate; comrade (companion or fellow socialist or communist)

“On est camarades depuis le lycée.” — We've been buddies since high school. (US) We've been mates since secondary school. (UK)

From Spanish camarada, itself from cámara (“chamber”) rather than Italian camerata which is slightly later but which influenced the form camerade which is attested in the 16th and 17th centuries. Both Italian and Spanish correspond to the construction of French chambrée. Before 1571, camarade ("soldiers' dormitory") is feminine. 1587, in military slang camarade either masculine or feminine, with the sense of "who shares with someone else", thereafter "buddy"; 1869 political sense.