Ahh, I can see why you'd feel the way you do, if your impression is that both meanings are equally used (or even that meaning #2 is more used). However, that's quite an anomaly you grew up with. Meaning #1 (where "girlfriend" = female dating/relationship partner) is overwhelmingly the primary and entrenched meaning of the word. You won't find any current dictionary that doesn't list it first. You can find abbreviated dictionaries or translation programs or phrasebooks that don't list meaning #2 at all; you won't find any that list only meaning #2. It's a very secondary meaning, across the whole English-speaking world.
(Long before we were born, meaning #2 was the primary meaning, but only very old people were alive when that was true. And in that time, gender distinctions were quite important enough to merit a separate word for friends by gender.)
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 23:38 (UTC)(Long before we were born, meaning #2 was the primary meaning, but only very old people were alive when that was true. And in that time, gender distinctions were quite important enough to merit a separate word for friends by gender.)