Friending

[frend] /frɛnd/

noun
1.
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
2.
a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter:
friends of the Boston Symphony.
3.
a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile:
Who goes there? Friend or foe?
4.
a member of the same nation, party, etc.
5.
(initial capital letter) a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.
6.
a person associated with another as a contact on a social-media website:
We’ve never met, but we’re Facebook friends.
verb (used with object)
7.
Rare. to .
8.
to add (a person) to one’s list of contacts on a social-media website:
I just friended a couple of guys in my class.
Idioms
9.
make friends with, to enter into friendly relations with; become a friend to.
/frɛnd/
noun
1.
a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate
2.
an acquaintance or associate
3.
an ally in a fight or cause; supporter
4.
a fellow member of a party, society, etc
5.
a patron or supporter: a friend of the opera
6.
be friends, to be friendly (with)
7.
make friends, to become friendly (with)
verb
8.
(transitive) an archaic word for befriend
/frɛnd/
noun
1.
a member of the Religious Society of Friends; Quaker
/frɛnd/
noun
1.
trademark (mountaineering) a device consisting of a shaft with double-headed spring-loaded cams that can be wedged in a crack to provide an anchor point
n.

Old English freond “friend,” present participle of freogan “to love, to favor,” from Proto-Germanic *frijojanan “to love” (cf. Old Norse frændi, Old Frisian friund, Middle High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds “friend,” all alike from present participle forms). Related to Old English freo “free” (see free (adj.)).

Meaning “a Quaker” (a member of the Society of Friends) is from 1670s. Feond (“fiend,” originally “enemy”) and freond often were paired alliteratively in Old English; both are masculine agent nouns derived from present participle of verbs, but are not directly related to one another (see fiend). Related: Friends.
v.

in the Facebook sense, attested from 2005, from the noun, but friend has been used as a verb in English since late 14c. Related: Friended; friending. Old English had freonsped “an abundance of friends” (see speed (n.)); freondleast “want of friends;” freondspedig “rich in friends”, all of which would be useful now.
In addition to the idiom beginning with
friend