Frenemy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.mi/

Definitions

1. a person who appears to be a friend but whose actions or motives are actually hostile or competitive
2. an individual who outwardly maintains friendly relations while harboring antagonistic feelings or rivalries underneath
3. someone who presents themselves as an ally yet behaves in ways that undermine or compete against your interests

Etymology: "Frenemy" is a blend of "friend" and "enemy," and the striking thing is how often it was reinvented. The same blend appeared independently in several places, so no single inventor can be credited with it. An example from 1952 uses it with no hedging, as though readers would already recognise it, which suggests it was circulating in speech or writing before that date. Other writers in 1979 and 1992 used it differently, treating it as a one-off coinage that they expected readers to find novel. That tells us the word spent decades as a quirky blend, used by some and unfamiliar to many, before it became the standard term it is now.

Synonyms: rival, opponent, competitor, adversary, confidant

Antonyms: friend, ally, supporter, partner, confederate