frenemy
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Blend of friend + enemy. Likely to have been invented independently multiple times.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
frenemy (plural frenemies)
- (sometimes humorous) Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend.
- 1987, by Eric B. and Rakim (lyrics and music), “I Ain't No Joke”, in Paid in Full:
- Another enemy / Not even a frenemy.
- 1998, New Radicals (lyrics and music), “You Get What You Give”:
- Frienemies who when you're down ain't your friend
- 2001, John Lanchester, The Debt to Pleasure.[1]:
- In France the Seine has all the advantages of Northernness (a quality underrated by our Gallic frenemy) but it is too fatally interested in Paris [...]
- 2004, Andrea Semple, The Ex-Factor[2], back cover:
- You know when you dump a guy, only to discover years later that he's evolved into the perfect boyfriend—for the high-school frenemy who convinced you to dump him in the first place...?
- 2005, Joanne Meyer, Single Girl's Guide to Murder[3], back cover:
- So why did we break up? Enter Blaize St. John, frenemy extraordinaire. She came, she saw, she stole my boyfriend.
- 2007 June 18, Time:
- Gates made a rare and instructive appearance with his longtime frenemy Steve Jobs.
- (sometimes humorous) A fair-weather friend who is also a rival.
- 2008 April 6, Erin Ehrlich, Six Characters in Search of a House (King of the Hill), season 12, episode 17, spoken by Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root):
- So, we're definitely not going to be friends with Ferguson? Maybe we can be frenemies. A love-hate relationship's the next best thing.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
enemy pretending to be a friend
fair-weather friend who is also a rival
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See also[edit]
- backfriend
- love-hate
- on-again, off-again
- frenemy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia