See frenemy on Wiktionary
{
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"_dis1": "0 0",
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}
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"etymology_text": "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).",
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"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"
},
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"_dis1": "0 0",
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"_dis1": "0 0",
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"_dis1": "0 0",
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"_dis1": "0 0",
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],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
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"word": "betrayer"
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"ref": "1952 February 9, Manny Farber, “Art”, in The Nation, volume 174, number 6, page 140:",
"text": "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.",
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"ref": "1987, by Eric B. and Rakim, “I Ain't No Joke”, in Paid in Full:",
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"ref": "1998, Gregg Alexander, Rick Nowels, “You Get What You Give”, in Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, performed by New Radicals:",
"text": "Frenemies who when you're down ain't your friend",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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95,
102
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],
"ref": "2001, John Lanchester, The Debt to Pleasure.:",
"text": "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 […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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124,
131
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"ref": "2004, Andrea Semple, The Ex-Factor, back cover:",
"text": "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...?",
"type": "quotation"
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47,
54
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"ref": "2005, Joanne Meyer, Single Girl's Guide to Murder, back cover:",
"text": "So why did we break up? Enter Blaize St. John, frenemy extraordinaire. She came, she saw, she stole my boyfriend.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
63,
70
]
],
"ref": "2007 June 18, Time:",
"text": "Gates made a rare and instructive appearance with his longtime frenemy Steve Jobs.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend."
],
"id": "en-frenemy-en-noun-5YA9g1zp",
"links": [
[
"enemy",
"enemy"
],
[
"friend",
"friend"
]
],
"related": [
{
"tags": [
"alternative"
],
"word": "frienemy"
}
],
"tags": [
"humorous",
"sometimes"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"lang_code": "af",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"word": "vryand"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"lang_code": "ar",
"roman": "aṣ-ṣadīqu l-ʕaduwwu",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "الصَّدِيقُ العَدُوُّ"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"note": "of women",
"roman": "sùliào jiěmèihuā",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"word": "塑料姐妹花"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ennami"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "frennemie"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "frennemi"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"alt": "ともなるてき",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"lang_code": "ja",
"roman": "tomo naru teki",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"word": "友なる敵"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "aminimigo"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "aminimiga"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "ru",
"english": "zakljatyj drug",
"lang": "Russian",
"lang_code": "ru",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"translation": "zakljatyj drug",
"word": "заклятый друг"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "amienemigo"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "38 62",
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
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{
"_dis": "25 75",
"kind": "other",
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{
"_dis": "26 74",
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{
"_dis": "19 81",
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{
"_dis": "21 79",
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{
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"_dis": "16 84",
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{
"_dis": "24 76",
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{
"_dis": "15 85",
"kind": "other",
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{
"_dis": "17 83",
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{
"_dis": "25 75",
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
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"bold_text_offsets": [
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76,
85
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],
"ref": "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):",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A fair-weather friend who is also a rival."
],
"id": "en-frenemy-en-noun-LXcANf1Y",
"links": [
[
"fair-weather friend",
"fair-weather friend"
],
[
"rival",
"rival"
]
],
"tags": [
"humorous",
"sometimes"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "7 93",
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"lang_code": "ar",
"roman": "ṣadīqu maṣlaḥa",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "صَدِيقُ مَصْلَحَة"
},
{
"_dis1": "7 93",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "meilleur ennemi"
},
{
"_dis1": "7 93",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "aminimigo"
},
{
"_dis1": "7 93",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "aminimiga"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.mi/"
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/22/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/22/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav.ogg",
"tags": [
"Southern-England"
]
}
],
"word": "frenemy"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English humorous terms",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English oxymorons",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Afrikaans translations",
"Terms with Arabic translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"en:People"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "frenemyship"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
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"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "friend",
"3": "enemy"
},
"expansion": "Blend of friend + enemy",
"name": "blend"
}
],
"etymology_text": "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).",
"forms": [
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"tags": [
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}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "frenemy (plural frenemies)",
"name": "en-noun"
},
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},
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],
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"
},
{
"word": "backfriend"
},
{
"word": "love-hate"
},
{
"word": "on-again, off-again"
},
{
"word": "kismesis"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"coordinate_terms": [
{
"word": "betrayer"
},
{
"word": "double-crosser"
},
{
"word": "backstabber"
},
{
"word": "traitor"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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232,
239
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],
"ref": "1952 February 9, Manny Farber, “Art”, in The Nation, volume 174, number 6, page 140:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
27,
34
]
],
"ref": "1987, by Eric B. and Rakim, “I Ain't No Joke”, in Paid in Full:",
"text": "Another enemy / Not even a frenemy.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
0,
9
]
],
"ref": "1998, Gregg Alexander, Rick Nowels, “You Get What You Give”, in Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, performed by New Radicals:",
"text": "Frenemies who when you're down ain't your friend",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
95,
102
]
],
"ref": "2001, John Lanchester, The Debt to Pleasure.:",
"text": "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 […]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
124,
131
]
],
"ref": "2004, Andrea Semple, The Ex-Factor, back cover:",
"text": "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...?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
47,
54
]
],
"ref": "2005, Joanne Meyer, Single Girl's Guide to Murder, back cover:",
"text": "So why did we break up? Enter Blaize St. John, frenemy extraordinaire. She came, she saw, she stole my boyfriend.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
63,
70
]
],
"ref": "2007 June 18, Time:",
"text": "Gates made a rare and instructive appearance with his longtime frenemy Steve Jobs.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend."
],
"links": [
[
"enemy",
"enemy"
],
[
"friend",
"friend"
]
],
"related": [
{
"tags": [
"alternative"
],
"word": "frienemy"
}
],
"tags": [
"humorous",
"sometimes"
]
},
{
"categories": [
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],
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{
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[
76,
85
]
],
"ref": "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):",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A fair-weather friend who is also a rival."
],
"links": [
[
"fair-weather friend",
"fair-weather friend"
],
[
"rival",
"rival"
]
],
"tags": [
"humorous",
"sometimes"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.mi/"
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/22/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/22/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-frenemy.wav.ogg",
"tags": [
"Southern-England"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "af",
"lang": "Afrikaans",
"lang_code": "af",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"word": "vryand"
},
{
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"lang_code": "ar",
"roman": "aṣ-ṣadīqu l-ʕaduwwu",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "الصَّدِيقُ العَدُوُّ"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"note": "of women",
"roman": "sùliào jiěmèihuā",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"word": "塑料姐妹花"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ennami"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "frennemie"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "frennemi"
},
{
"alt": "ともなるてき",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"lang_code": "ja",
"roman": "tomo naru teki",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"word": "友なる敵"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "aminimigo"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "aminimiga"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"english": "zakljatyj drug",
"lang": "Russian",
"lang_code": "ru",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"translation": "zakljatyj drug",
"word": "заклятый друг"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "amienemigo"
},
{
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"lang_code": "ar",
"roman": "ṣadīqu maṣlaḥa",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "صَدِيقُ مَصْلَحَة"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "meilleur ennemi"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "aminimigo"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "fair-weather friend who is also a rival",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "aminimiga"
}
],
"word": "frenemy"
}
Download raw JSONL data for frenemy meaning in All languages combined (7.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.