Frenemy

"Frenemy" (less commonly spelled "frienemy") is an oxymoron and a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy pretending to be a friend or someone who really is a friend but also a rival.^[1] The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953.^[2]

People

A Businessweek article stated that frenemies in the workplace are common, due to increasingly informal environments and the "abundance of very close, intertwined relationships that bridge people's professional and personal lives ... [while] it certainly wasn't unheard of for people to socialize with colleagues in the past, the sheer amount of time that people spend at work now has left a lot of people with less time and inclination to develop friendships outside of the office."^[3]

See also

• Competition
• The enemy of my enemy is my friend
• Promoting adversaries

References

1. Oxford English Dictionary online, draft entry, December 2008
2. Winchell, W. (19 May 1953). "Howz about calling the Russians our Frienemies?". Nevada State Journal (Gannett Company).
3. Frenemies at Work, Liz Ryan, BusinessWeek, June 14, 2007.

• Voo, Jocelyn (2007-08-27). "Do you have a 'frenemy'?". CNN. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
• McDonell-Parry, Amelia (2009-08-2009). "Why do women have frenemies?". CNN. Retrieved 2009-09-06. Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Levine, Irene S (2009-06-10). "Caution: Frenemies can be bad for your health". The Friendship Blog. Retrieved 2013-11-30.

External links

• Sir Martin sorrell discusses medi changes
• LA Times: Google an ally, not a threat, media exec says
• The Word - Apocalypse Mao: Murdered by the Orient's Success - Frenemy (Colbert Report)