friend

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See also: Friend

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English frend, freend, from Old English frēond (“friend”, literally “loving[-one], lover”), from Proto-West Germanic *friund, from Proto-Germanic *frijōndz (“lover, friend”), from Proto-Indo-European *preyH- (“to like, love”), equivalent to free +‎ -nd.

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fjund, Früünd (“friend”), West Frisian freon, froen, freondinne (“friend”), Dutch vriend (“friend”), Low German Frund, Fründ (“friend, relative”), Luxembourgish Frënd (“friend”), German Freund (“friend”), Danish frænde (“kinsman”), Swedish frände (“kinsman, relative”), Icelandic frændi (“kinsman”), Welsh ffrind (“friend”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 (frijōnds, “friend”). More at free.

Other cognates include Russian прия́тель (prijátelʹ, “friend”) and Sanskrit प्रिय (priyá-, “beloved”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

friend (plural friends)

  1. A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
    • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship”, in Essays, volume I:
      The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
    • 1917, Richard M. Gummere translating Seneca as Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. I, No. 3:
      ...if you consider any man a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken and you do not sufficiently understand what true friendship means.
    • 1923, William Armistead Falconer translating Cicero as De Amicitia, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. XX, p. 34:
      ...he who looks upon a true friend, looks, as it were, upon a sort of image of himself. Wherefore friends, though absent, are at hand; though in need, yet abound; though weak, are strong; and—harder saying still—though dead, are yet alive; so great is the esteem on the part of their friends, the tender recollection and the deep longing that still attends them.
    • 1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald:
      ...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.
    • 1933 Dec. 12, Walter Winchell, "On Broadway", Scranton Republican, p. 5:
      Definition of a friend: One who walks in—when the rest of the world walks out.
    John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college.   Trust is important between friends.   I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.
    We became friends in the war and remain friends to this day.    We were friends with some girls from the other school and stayed friends with them.
  2. An associate who provides assistance.
    The Automobile Association is every motorist's friend.   The police is every law-abiding citizen's friend.
  3. A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted.
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
    a friend of a friend
    I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know him.
  4. A person who backs or supports something.
    I’m not a friend of cheap wine.
  5. (informal) An object or idea that can be used for good.
    Fruit is your friend.
  6. (colloquial, ironic, used only in the vocative) Used as a form of address when warning someone.
    You’d better watch it, friend.
  7. (object-oriented programming) A function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
    • 1991, Tom Swan, Learning C++:
      But don't take the following sections as an endorsement of friends. Top C++ programmers avoid using friends unless absolutely necessary.
    • 2001, Stephen Prata, C++ primer plus:
      In that case, the function needn't (and shouldn't) be a friend.
    • 2008, D S Malik, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design:
      To make a function be a friend to a class, the reserved word friend precedes the function prototype […]
  8. (climbing) A spring-loaded camming device.
    • 1995, Rock Climbing Basics:
      Since they were introduced in the 1970s, friends have revolutionized climbing, making protection possible in previously impossible places […]
  9. (euphemistic) A lover; a boyfriend or girlfriend.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
      Nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue ; Nor never come in visard to my friend
    • 1813, Samuel Foote, The Commissary, Etc., page 17:
      Time has been, when a gentleman wanted a friend, I could supply him with choice in an hour; but the market is spoiled, and a body might as soon produce a hare or a partridge […]
    • 1975, Janis Ian, In the Winter:
      I met your friend. She's very nice, what can I say?
  10. (Scotland, obsolete) A relative, a relation by blood or marriage.
    Friends agree best at a distance.
    Make friends of framet folk.
    • 1895, Crockett, Bog-Myrtle, 232:
      He was not a drop's blood to me, though him and my wife were far-out friends.
  11. (in the plural, usually preceded by "and") Used to refer collectively to a group of associated individuals, especially those comprising a cast, company, or crew
    Synonyms: and company, et al.
    Meanwhile on The View, Whoopi Goldberg and friends continue to issue forced apologies for their assumptive comments regarding non-profit organisation Turning Point USA...

Usage notes[edit]

  • friends is found as an invariable plural in the phrases make friends with and be friends with: I am friends with her; He made friends with his co-worker.
  • We usually make a friend, or make friends with someone. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take
  • In older texts and certain dialects, the prepositional phrase to friend means "as a friend or an ally", for exampleː "with God to frend (Spenser)". The antonym to the phrase to friend is to fiend.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

  • (antonym(s) of "person whose company one enjoys"): See Thesaurus:enemy
  • (antonym(s) of "person with whom you are acquainted"): stranger
  • (antonym(s) of "person who provides assistance"): enemy, foe

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • → Cantonese: friend (fen1)
  • → Finnish: frendi
  • → Serbo-Croatian:

Translations[edit]

See friend/translations § Noun.

Verb[edit]

friend (third-person singular simple present friends, present participle friending, simple past and past participle friended)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
      Lo sluggish Knight the victors happie pray: / So fortune friends the bold [...].
    • 1896, Alfred Edward Housman, A Shropshire Lad, section LXII:
      ’Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale
      Is not so brisk a brew as ale:
      Out of a stem that scored the hand
      I wrung it in a weary land.
      But take it: if the smack is sour,
      The better for the embittered hour;
      It should do good to heart and head
      When your soul is in my soul’s stead;
      And I will friend you, if I may,
      In the dark and cloudy day.
  2. (transitive) To add (a person) to a list of friends on a social networking site; to officially designate (someone) as a friend.
    • 2006, David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie, "Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal" (PDF version), Internet Research Annual Volume 4, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 99,
      The difference between responses to the statement, "If someone friends me, I will friend them," and "If I friend someone, I expect them to friend me back," is telling.
    • 2006, Kevin Farnham, Dale G. Farnham, Myspace Safety: 51 Tips for Teens And Parents‎[2], How-To Primers, →ISBN, page 69:
      One of the most used features of MySpace is the practice that is nicknamed "friending." If you "friend" someone, then that person is added to your MySpace friends list, and you are added to their friends list.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

befriend — see befriend

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bingham, Caleb (1808) “Improprieties in Pronunciation, common among the people of New-England”, in The Child's Companion; Being a Conciſe Spelling-book […] ‎[1], 12th edition, Boston: Manning & Loring, →OCLC, page 75.

Further reading[edit]

  • “friend”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams[edit]

Chinese[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English friend.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Cantonese (alternative)): IPA(key): /fɹɛːn⁵⁵/

    • Noun[edit]

    friend

    1. (Cantonese) friend (Classifier: 個／个 c)
      佢係我個friend嚟㗎。 [Cantonese, trad.]
      佢系我个friend嚟㗎。 [Cantonese, simp.]
      keoi5 hai6 ngo5 go3 fen1 lai4 gaa3. [Jyutping]
      He's my friend.
    2. (Cantonese, always with the classifier) the likes of; something similar to (Classifier: 啲 c)

    Synonyms[edit]

    • (friend):
    Dialectal synonyms of 朋友 (“friend”) [map]
    Variety Location Words
    Classical Chinese 友, 朋, 朋友, 友人, 友生
    Formal (Written Standard Chinese) 朋友, 友人
    Mandarin Beijing 朋友
    Taiwan 朋友
    Tianjin 朋友
    Chengde 朋友
    Tangshan 朋友
    Cangzhou 朋友
    Baoding 朋友
    Shijiazhuang 朋友
    Chifeng 朋友
    Hulunbuir (Hailar) 朋友
    Heihe 朋友
    Qiqihar 朋友
    Harbin 朋友, 老鐵
    Jiamusi 朋友
    Baicheng 朋友
    Changchun 朋友
    Tonghua 朋友
    Shenyang 朋友
    Dandong 朋友
    Jinzhou 朋友
    Dalian 朋友
    Yantai 朋友
    Yantai (Muping) 朋友
    Qingdao 朋友
    Lijin 朋友
    Zhucheng 朋友, 相好的
    Jinan 朋友
    Jining 朋友
    Luoyang 朋友
    Wanrong 朋友
    Shangqiu 朋友
    Yuanyang 朋友
    Zhengzhou 朋友
    Lingbao 朋友
    Xinyang 朋友
    Baihe 朋友
    Hanzhong 朋友
    Xi'an 朋友
    Baoji 朋友
    Yinchuan 朋友
    Tianshui 朋友
    Lanzhou 朋友
    Dunhuang 朋友
    Xining 朋友
    Hami 朋友
    Ürümqi 朋友
    Wuhan 朋友
    Yichang 朋友
    Xiangyang 朋友, 老把
    Tianmen 朋友, 老夥計
    Hong'an 朋友, 夥計
    Chengdu 朋友
    Nanchong 朋友
    Dazhou 朋友, 耍得好
    Hanyuan 朋友, 夥計
    Xichang 朋友
    Zigong 朋友
    Chongqing 朋友
    Guiyang 朋友
    Zunyi 朋友
    Bijie 朋友
    Liping 朋友
    Zhaotong 朋友
    Dali 朋友
    Kunming 朋友
    Mengzi 朋友
    Guilin 朋友
    Liuzhou 朋友
    Jishou 朋友
    Changde 朋友
    Anqing 朋友
    Xuzhou 朋友, 夥計
    Fuyang 朋友
    Wuhu 朋友
    Yangzhou 朋友
    Lianyungang 朋友
    Lianshui 朋友
    Nanjing 朋友
    Hefei 朋友
    Nantong 朋友
    Singapore 朋友
    Cantonese Guangzhou 朋友
    Hong Kong 朋友, friend, friend子
    Taishan 朋友
    Dongguan 朋友
    Singapore (Guangfu) 朋友
    Gan Nanchang 朋友
    Lichuan 朋友
    Hakka Meixian 朋友
    Yudu 朋友
    Miaoli (N. Sixian) 朋友
    Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian) 朋友
    Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu) 朋友
    Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu) 朋友
    Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping) 朋友
    Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an) 朋友
    Huizhou Jixi 朋友
    Shexian 朋友
    Jin Taiyuan 朋友
    Yangyuan 朋友, 相好的
    Datong 朋友
    Xinzhou 朋友, 結拜 dated
    Lishi 朋友, 拜識
    Linfen 朋友
    Changzhi 朋友, 相好的
    Linhe 朋友
    Jining 朋友
    Hohhot 朋友
    Erenhot 朋友
    Pingshan 朋友, 相好的
    Zhangjiakou 朋友
    Handan 朋友
    Linzhou 朋友
    Suide 朋友, 相好的
    Northern Min Jian'ou 朋友, 朋友伙
    Eastern Min Fuzhou 朋友
    Southern Min Xiamen 朋友, 交丸 dated
    Quanzhou 朋友
    Jinjiang 朋友
    Zhangzhou 朋友
    Tainan 朋友
    Penang (Hokkien) 朋友, 交丸
    Singapore (Hokkien) 朋友, 交丸
    Manila (Hokkien) 朋友
    Singapore (Teochew) 朋友
    Haikou 朋友
    Singapore (Hainanese) 朋友
    Southern Pinghua Nanning (Tingzi) 朋友
    Waxiang Guzhang (Gaofeng) 朋子
    Yuanling (Shaojiwan) 朋
    Wu Shanghai 朋友
    Shanghai (Chongming) 朋友
    Suzhou 朋友
    Danyang 朋友
    Hangzhou 朋友
    Ningbo 朋友, 朋友家
    Wenzhou 朋友家, 朋友
    Jinhua 朋友
    Xiang Changsha 朋友
    Xiangxiang 朋友

    Adjective[edit]

    friend

    1. (Cantonese) in a close or friendly relationship
      我哋好friend㗎。 [Cantonese]  ―  ngo5 dei6 hou2 fen1 gaa3. [Jyutping]  ―  We are really close.

    Derived terms[edit]

    References[edit]

    Middle English[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    friend

    1. Alternative form of frend

    Old English[edit]

    Pronunciation[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    frīend

    1. dative singular of frēond
    2. nominative and accusative plural of frēond

    Spanish[edit]

    Etymology[edit]

    Borrowed from English friend.

    Pronunciation[edit]

    • IPA(key): /ˈfɾend/ [ˈfɾẽn̪d̪]
    • Rhymes: -end

    Noun[edit]

    friend m (plural friends)

    1. (climbing) cam

    Yola[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    friend

    1. Alternative form of vriene
      • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 100:
        Mye thee friend ne're waant welcome, nor straayart comfoort.
        May thy friend ne'er want welcome, nor the stranger comfort.

    References[edit]

    • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 100
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