backfriend

English

WOTD – 10 January 2024

Etymology

From back (adverb or noun) +‎ friend. Sense 3 (“person who pretends to be someone’s friend”) may allude to a person who stays back instead of coming forward to help, and so is not a true friend.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbækˌfɹɛnd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: back‧friend

Noun

backfriend (plural backfriends) (British, dialectal)

1. (archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter.
   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 49:

     They had vvings of goodvvill to fly vvith, but no vvebbes on their feete to ſvvimme vvith, for except the vvaterfoules had mercie vpon them, and ſtood their faithfull confederates and backe-friends, on their backes to tranſport them, they might returne home like good fooles, and gather ſtravves to build their neſts, or fal to theyr old trade of picking vvormes.

   • 1707, Michael Bruce, “Sermon II. On Psalm 140. Verses 12, 13.”, in Good News in Evil Times for Fainting Believers, or The Summ of a Lecture upon Jeremiah 45 Chapter; […], [S.l]: [s.n.], published 1708, →OCLC, pages 63–64:

     Tho they give us neither VVine nor Ale; yet if they give us a Cup of cold VVater in the time of need, in the name of Diſciple, in the name of Miniſters, they ſhall not loſe their Revvard. Novv, vvell's us for our Back-friend, he vvill ay maintain our Cauſe; […]

   • 1823, [Walter Scott], “The Bohemians”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 123:

     I would always have been able to keep up my spirits with the reflection, that I had, in case of the worst, a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine. But now I have seen him, and, woe worth him, there has been more help in a mere mechanical stranger than I have found in my own mother's brother, my countryman and a cavalier.

   • 1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, →ISBN, page 65:

     [“H]e said to me, ‘Adelle, I’m going out. I’ve got a backfriend to meet.’” / “A ‘backfriend’?” / “Yes. Evidently he had a late-night appointment with someone at Wabash. That was the way he liked to do it.”

2. Synonym of hangnail (“a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail”)
   • 1866, E[liza] Lynn Linton, “Margaret and Ainslie”, in Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 121, column 2:

     […] Corrie bit another atom from off the corner of his nail. He had a troublesome "back-friend" or "agnail," at which he often bit.

4. (obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy.

   Hypernyms: nonfriend, unfriend

   • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94, column 1:

     A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe: / A VVolfe, nay vvorſe, a fellovv all in buffe: / A back friend, a ſhoulder-clapper, one that countermãds / The paſſages of allies, creekes, and narrovv lands: […]

   • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Henrie the Fifth, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 628, column 1:

     […] VVeſtmorland thought it ſafeſt to checke the Scots, as the neerer and continuall backe-friends.

   • 1666 December 5 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Lambeth-Chapel on the 25th of November, 1666. [Julian calendar] upon the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. John Dolben, Lord Bishop of Rochester”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volume I, London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC, page 206:

     And ſo far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Povver, as ſome, vvho are Back-Friends to both, vvould maliciouſly inſinuate; that vvere it ſtripped of the very Remainder of its Privileges, and made as like the Primitive Church for its Bareneſs, as it is already for its Purity, it could chearfully, and vvhat is more, loyally, vvant all ſuch Privileges; […]

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] XI. A City Mouse and a Country Mouse [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, pages 11–12:

     Let a man but ſet […] The Reſtleſs Importunities of Tale-bearers and Back Friends, againſt Fair VVords and Profeſſions only from the Teeth outvvard: Let him, I ſay, but ſet the One in Ballance againſt the Other, and he ſhall find himſelf Miſerable, even in the very Glutt of his Delights.

   • 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 88–89:

     It is even as I suspected, my lord, […] Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends—or, to be plain, enemies—about the person of the Prince.

   • 1827 November 22, Robert Southey, “Chapter XXXI. [Letter to Henry Taylor, Esq.]”, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. […], volume V, London: […] [Spottiswoodes and Shaw] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 321:

     It would have been well for me, if I had always had friends as able and as willing to stand forward in my defence as you are. But I have had back[-]friends instead, as well as enemies.

Alternative forms

• back-friend

Related terms

• a friend in need is a friend indeed
• all-weather friend
• fair-weather friend
• frenemy

Translations

friend who supports someone — see backer,‎ supporter

synonym of hangnail — see hangnail

person who pretends to be someone’s friend

• Finnish: petollinen ystävä
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• Joseph Wright, editor (1898), “BACKFRIEND, sb.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes I (A–C), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 115, column 1.