On the oracle bones, 友 is two right hands — 又 — reaching toward each other, almost clasping. Two people lending a hand for the same task: that was the ancient picture of friendship, carved onto bone a thousand years before Confucius ever wrote the word down.
A piece of culture
Friends from afar The Analects (论语), the sayings of Confucius gathered by his students over 2,400 years ago, open with a line every Chinese schoolchild still recites: 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎 — "Is it not a joy when friends come from afar?" You already know 有 (to have) from these very pages; here it opens one of the most quoted sentences in the language, still painted on classroom walls across China today.
Use it in a real word
好友
hǎoyǒu · hou2 jau5
close friend — literally "good friend"; you already know 好