frenemy

English

Alternative forms

• frienemy

Etymology

Blend of friend +‎ enemy. Likely to have been invented independently multiple times.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.mi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

frenemy (plural frenemies) (sometimes humorous)

1. 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.

2. 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

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• betrayer
• double-crosser
• traitor
• palhole
• friend-foe

Translations

enemy pretending to be a friend

• Afrikaans: vryand
• Arabic: الصَّدِيقُ العَدُوُّ m (aṣ-ṣadīqu l-ʕaduwwu)
• French: ennami (fr) m
• Portuguese: aminimigo m, aminimiga f
• Spanish: amienemigo (es) m

fair-weather friend who is also a rival

• Arabic: صَدِيقُ مَصْلَحَة m (ṣadīqu maṣlaḥa)
• French: meilleur ennemi (fr) m
• Portuguese: aminimigo m, aminimiga f

See also

• backfriend
• love-hate
• on-again, off-again
• frenemy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia