Obs. [f. FRIEND sb. + MAN.] An intimate friend; also, a relative.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 183. Among þat þe sowle witeð þe licame worpeð hewe [and] þe frendmen him biwepeð gef þar anie ben.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20242 (Cott.). Hir freind-men til hir scho cald.
[1884. J. Parker, Apost. Life, III. 4. Humanity lives in itself; man looks for man—not any man, but the friend-man, the companion-heart, the other self that completes the identity.]
