Frenemy
WiktionaryText
Etymology
A portmanteau word, blending "friend" and "enemy". Likely to have been invented independently multiple times.
Noun
- Someone who pretends to be your friend, but is really your enemy.
Quotations
- 2000: frenemies —Sex and the City, season 3 episode 16, first aired October 1. [title]
- 2001: 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 [...] —John Lanchester, The Debt to Pleasure. http://print.google.com/print?id=5oQTntBdq_gC&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153&sig=6gozFgkZj_c0l3BG07cBvv9pCk8
- 2004: 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...? —The Ex-Factor, Andrea Semple. [back cover] http://print.google.com/print?id=POrE5lu430EC&lpg=PA278&pg=PA278&sig=Qq4QqJpU6DCfifI5g-aj6w9GJo0
- 2005: So why did we break up? Enter Blaize St. John, frenemy extraordinaire. She came, she saw, she stole my boyfriend. —Single Girl's Guide to Murder, Joanne Meyer. [back cover] http://print.google.com/print?id=uWFlXyWSpfIC&pg=PT4&lpg=PT4&sig=ixqqQtxAIczgL7QnPbqldCJEy1w
- 2007, "Gates made a rare and instructive appearance with his longtime frenemy Steve Jobs." Appeared on Time's June 18, 2007 issue.