What Does This Mean?
A portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" — someone who acts friendly to your face while harboring rivalry, envy, or hostility toward you.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
"She always "congratulates" me right before mentioning how she almost got the job instead — total frenemy behavior."
LORE & ORIGIN
An established English portmanteau that entered mainstream pop-culture vocabulary in the 2000s and has remained standard English slang since, used for the specific social dynamic of a friendship shadowed by real rivalry or resentment. The concept has been borrowed wholesale into other languages as a loanword rather than translated, including Japanese (フレネミー, furenemi), where it's used with the same meaning in relationship and pop-psychology commentary rather than taking on any Japan-specific twist.
EQUIVALENT CONCEPTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
MENTIONS OVER TIME
Radar observation data not yet available for this term.
RELATED SEARCHES
TOP PLATFORMS
Not enough Radar data yet to show a platform breakdown.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR THIS?
CLICK AN OPTION BELOW TO CAST YOUR VOTE.
[ VOTE TO REVEAL COMMUNITY RESULTS ]