Difference between amiko and geamikoj

Question

I learned that amiko and geamikoj means friend, and am wonder how they are differently used.

My initial guess is 'geamikoj' means mutual relationship so it is not used as a singular form as 'geamiko'

So...

Li estas mia amiko

Ili estas mia amikoj

Ili estas geamikoj

all make sense, but

Li estas mia geamiko

does not make sense.

Is my guess correct?

Answer 1

The prefix ge- is added to a word to mean it contains a mix of genders. So for example patro is a father, patrino is a mother and gepatroj is a group of mothers and fathers (or most likely one mother and one father).

So amiko means friend, and geamikoj is a group of friends with different genders.

Geamiko is generally not used in singular form because in traditional Esperanto that would mean a single person that is somehow related to multiple genders, which is an unusual thing to say.

Amiko is a bit of a special case because there is disagreement over whether it is a gender-neutral word. Some sources (such as PMEG) argue that amiko is neutral meaning that the ge- prefix is redundant and amikoj alone could be a mix of men and women. On the other hand PIV explicitly says that an amiko is a man so you would need to say amikino for a female friend and geamikoj for a group of friends of mixed gender.