OoP - A "mate" question for the Brits

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 65947

Beth wrote:

> The times that I noticed Ron using "mate" a lot seemed to be when 
> Harry was raving mad about something.  I know that it's been said 
> that that is an expression that british boys use, but I took it as 
> Ron's nervous, and somewhat feeble attempt to endear himself to 
> Harry. 

Yes, that's a valid observation- I find the use of the term 'mate' 
increases when you have to convince someone of something. You often 
find adults using it to convince very young chidren to do something 
they otherwise wouldn't (eat vegetables etc.) So I think it's 
perfectly reasonable for Ron to use it more towards an angry Harry, 
especially when he doesn't really understand Harry's grief. It's a 
way of affirming Harry without a condescending repetitive use of his 
name.

And for the question as to whether I found it annoying- not even 
slightly. I really think that I just found it to be entirely natural 
conversation that would be expected of a group of teenage males. 
Whilst I did notice that there was a considerably higher usage of the 
word in this book, it didn't really annoy me- mostly because I was 
more interested into the plot of the book, and tacking 'mate' on to 
the end of a sentence, effectively means nothing. And I am 
Australian, so I am used to the word 'mate' being thrown around... 

~<(Laurasia)>~
Who is glad to see such words at 'mateship' don't come up in Harry 
Potter novels and are left in their place as political propaganda.