Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
I need a word to describe someone who you haven’t met, but with whom you share many experiences and mutual friends … so many that you might as well have met, and when you DO finally meet you’re like “Oh, I basically already know you, yay!”
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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bingo
December 29th, 2006 at 8:52 am
ummm… how about ’stalker’?
Ariel
December 29th, 2006 at 9:27 am
What does having a lot of friends in common have to do with stealthily pursuing someone? Then again, maybe you’re just trying to make a joke and failing. Sorry to be bitchy, but anonymous unfunny comments make me cranky.
DOUG.
December 29th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Orbital.
mark
December 29th, 2006 at 10:11 am
“Friendwich?”
You’re each a slice of bread separated by shared filling.
liz
December 29th, 2006 at 10:23 am
I use the term “blog friend” or “flickr buddy” for people with whom I have a lot of interaction, but don’t know in person. Though the terms are pretty specifically tied to blogs and flickr.
bingo
December 29th, 2006 at 10:44 am
bad joke
Melle
December 29th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Have you ever noticed that English seems to fail us most commonly where terms relating to interpersonal relationships are concerned?
There’s probably some tiny island nation out there somewhere whose language has a minimalist vocabulary, but 80% of it consists of words/phrases to describe all the things we can’t with any (elegance).
Victoria
December 29th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Dunno, but if you figure it out, I wanna know!
amy.leblanc
December 29th, 2006 at 11:43 am
well, an “acquaintance” is defined as “someone recognized by sight or someone known, though not intimately” or “Knowledge of a person acquired by a relationship less intimate than friendship.”
i think that counts, though not necessarily catchy and doesn’t quite imply the warmth i think you are looking for… so, um. huh.
Standy
December 29th, 2006 at 11:47 am
The only thing that springs to mind is a phrase, not a word — maybe something like “unexpected kindred spirit”? Though I sorta hate the phrase “kindred spirit.”
Ariel
December 29th, 2006 at 11:54 am
“prequaintance” (a suggestion I received via email, and a word that I’d chewed over this morning) is one of the best so far…
Kate
December 29th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Brain twin?
Counterpart?
Double?
Alter ego?
Doppelganger?
yelahneb
December 29th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
i like the previously mentioned “orbital” friend. my first impulse: “metafriend”.
ninjette
December 29th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
you relation to these these people is that you are “separated by one-tenth of a degree” or for short sbo-toad
or instead of meta friend, maybe it could be notayetametafriend
Timothy Fox
December 29th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
“Old friend” is wat people who i know like that call me. and it feels ok.
jayfader
December 30th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Parallelopal?
alison
December 30th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
that’s kind of how i think of you. on the occasions when you’ve come up in conversation, i just say “my friend ariel…,” or whatever. while not exactly true, it’s not really UNtrue either, and it’s easier than saying “this girl ariel i’ve known on the internet for several years but have never met although we’ve corresponded…”
Amani
December 30th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
paraquaintance!
(metaquaintance? though it’s not really meta-, is it?
would God be a metaquaintance? )
Ariel
December 30th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Some of these get very close — metaquaintance is a good one.
The theory here is that you’ve traveled in the same circle with this person for years. You have friends in common. You’ve unwittingly gone to the same events but never met. You share interests. But you’ve just never been introduced.
Maybe an acronym would work … FINYP (Friend I’ve Not Yet Met), BAKE Stranger (Basically Already Know ‘Em), NAWAF (New acquintance who’s already familiar), ERB-NAM (Elbows Rubbed But Never Actually Met).
Ooh, or same-circle acquaintance?
Oh and Alison, I do the same thing. It’s weird to explain to non-bloggers “So, this blogger who I’ve never met but basically sort of know wrote this thing…” and simpler to just say “A writer-friend of mine was saying…”
alison
December 31st, 2006 at 9:39 am
ERB-NAM is awesome.
Christina Cox
January 4th, 2007 at 7:08 am
This reminds me of the Kurt Vonnegut book Cat’’s Cradle, and I think this person is part of your karass-http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=karass
owen
January 5th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Snuffleuppagus.
I guess single-gender nouns are out these days, but what about a TanGentleman?
Ariel
January 15th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
And so it has been decreed: PARAQUAINTANCE!