the.com/frenemy
someone you'd take a bullet for, ideally one you fired yourself.
means A person who is nominally a friend but is also a rival or someone you secretly resent, blending warmth and hostility in one relationship.
from A portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy," the kind of clever blend English loves to make. The word turns up in print in the mid-20th century and got a big boost in the late 1990s and 2000s through TV and tabloid culture, but the idea itself is ancient — the rivalrous bosom companion is as old as friendship.
- word birth
- Coined in 1953 by columnist Walter Winchell
- brain truth
- Ambivalent ties stress us more than pure enemies
- animal version
- Cleaner fish nip the hosts they pretend to serve
- oxford status
- Officially added to the dictionary in 2008
- power move
- Keep friends close, frenemies on speakerphone
for instance
trump and rupert murdoch — us president and fox news owner who alternately allied and feuded 2016-2024
india and pakistan — neighboring nations conducting cricket matches while maintaining military tensions since 1947