True love is friendship caught on fire.
~ French Proverb
A friend is a lover. Yes!
The Latin origin of the word friend is “amīcus” and “amīcus” came from “amō.” In Latin it stands for "I love.” Even “philos,” the Greek meaning of the word friend, is extracted from the word “phileō.” And again it stands for "I love."
If you knock the door of Middle English, you have to travel a thousand years back to see the verb related to "friend." The old English word “frēond” was the source for today’s "friend." Interestingly, it was simply the present participle of the verb frēon, "to love."
