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How can the word friend possibly describe both the people you went to school with and the people to whom you are connected through Facebook and MySpace? Are friends on the social sites really friends? Is there a better word to describe someone who follows you on Twitter? A caller thinks the English language could use some new words to differentiate among varying levels and types of friendship.
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What a dilemma! My friend Bubba and I were talking about this last year. I did think of a term for an internet friend - "interquaintence". However, there are 2 possible and opposing definitions and I haven't yet sorted out which of these would be assigned to interquaintence, and which would get its own new word:
1. That coworker whom you see daily sends you a friend request on a social network site, but he rarely says hello or talks to you in person. This is more common than one would expect.
2. A person you have "met" online, but not in person.
Neither meets the traditional definition of friend.
I do wish there were a few more words for friend. Something in between friend and acquaintance.
I think I tend to use the word "friend" more than I should. For example, there are always people at work whose company I enjoy, but I don't share every detail of my life with them. That is reserved for a much smaller circle of people.
People can move among these categories. There are many people who were close friends at one time, but time and geographic distance have lessened that bond.
“just friends†– What does that mean?
…from Randy Glasbergen's Cartoon of the Day web site…
http://www.glasbergen.com
- johng423
I had a similar feeling about English use of "friend" as a non-native speaker. Polish-English dictionaries will tell you that "friend" is in Polish "przyjaciel", and "znajomy" is "acquaintance". But in fact the word "przyjaciel" is used in Polish much more discriminately, for the relationships like Achilles and Patrocles (albeit without homosexual undertones) or Thelma and Louise. Eva Hoffman in her "Lost in Translation" put it much more better than I ever could (and she refers to the era long before the advent of the Internet "friends"):
We like each other quite well, though I'm not sure that what is between us is "friendship" - a word which in Polish has connotations of strong loyalty and attachment bordering on love. At first, I try to preserve the distinction between "friends" and "acquaintances" scrupulously, because it feels like a small lie to say "friend" when you don't really mean it, but after a while, I give it up. "Friend", in English, is such a good-natured, easygoing sort of term, covering all kinds of territory, and "acquaintance" is something an uptight, snobbish kind of person might say. My parents, however, never divest themselves of the habit, and with an admirable resistance to linguistic looseness, continue to call most people they know "my acquaintance" - or, as they put it early on, "mine acquaintance". As the word is used here, Penny is certainly a friend...
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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