frenemy

Blend of friend +‎ enemy. Invented independently multiple times. Attested in 1952 without any scare quotes or self-referential apology, clearly suggesting that the writer expected his audience to be unsurprised by encountering the word, but used by other writers in 1979 and 1992 in ways that indicate that those writers considered it a nonce blend and expected that their audiences would view it that way too; these examples are evidence that the word existed for many decades during which it was not yet widely familiar or established (which it now is).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.mi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

frenemy (plural frenemies) (sometimes humorous)

1. Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend.

   Alternative form: frienemy

   Coordinate terms: betrayer, double-crosser, backstabber, traitor

   • 1952 February 9, Manny Farber, “Art”, in The Nation‎^[1], volume 174, number 6, page 140:

     Painting with a bland stroke, hardly mixing color on palette or canvas, working neatly, quickly, deftly, and a bit hygienically—like an Old World gentleman—over his “spontaneous” projects—indeed, “tickling” his way along, to borrow frenemy Picasso's devastating verb—he [Henri Matisse] seems never to be deeply involved or even slightly carried away by his work.

   • 1987, by Eric B. and Rakim, “I Ain't No Joke”, in Paid in Full:

     Another enemy / Not even a frenemy.

   • 1998, Gregg Alexander, Rick Nowels, “You Get What You Give”, in Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, performed by New Radicals:

     Frenemies who when you're down ain't your friend

   • 2001, John Lanchester, The Debt to Pleasure.‎^[2]:

     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^[3], 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^[4], 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.

• backfriend
• love-hate
• on-again, off-again

• frenemy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia