Posted by Sasha Volokh:
Everything old is new again:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_03_04-2007_03_10.shtml#1173417962


   Emily Yoffe writes in Slate of the experience of [1]being
   fiftysomething and joining Facebook. She writes: "I provided a
   photograph and minimal information for my profile . . . and waited for
   the 'friending' to begin. (You can try to resist, but friend is now a
   verb.)"

   I did once try to resist, but then, in the early 13th century, the
   [2]Guide for Anchoresses said: "Make no purses, for to friend yourself
   therewith." Then, around 1387, [3]Thomas Usk wrote, in the last
   sentences of his [4]Testament of Love: "Charity is love, and love is
   charity. God grant us all therein to be friended." Then, around 1425,
   [5]Wyntoun wrote in his Chronicles: "And after soon friended were the
   [6]King David of Scotland and [7]Stephen, king then of England." In
   1562, [8]John Heywood wrote, in his Proverbs and Epigrams: "Friend
   they any, that flatter many?" In the late 16th century, [9]Rollock
   wrote in a sermon: "Thou shall never get regeneration before God be
   friended with thee: thou is his enemy, thou must be friended with
   him."

   At first I was all "Who's ever heard of these clowns anyway?" But
   then, in 1599, Shakespeare wrote, in [10]Henry V: [11]Disorder, that
   hath spoil'd us, friend us now!"

   It just kept coming: In 1600, [12]Philemon Holland wrote, in his
   translation of [13]Livy: "They had undertaken the warre upon king
   Philip, because he had friended and aided the Carthaginians." In 1622,
   [14]Michael Drayton wrote in the [15]Poly-Olbion: "But friended with
   the flood the barons hold their strength." In 1676, William Row wrote:
   "Reports came that the King would friend Lauderdale." In 1721,
   [16]Thomas Southerne wrote in The Spartan Dame: "There the street is
   narrow, and may friend our purpose well."

   Finally, in the Victorian period (1867), I read [17]Matthew Arnold's
   [18]St. Brandan: "That germ of kindness, in the womb / Of mercy
   caught, did not expire; / Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom, / And
   friends me in the pit of fire."

   Yes, Emily, you can try to resist, but "friend" is now a verb. I
   stopped trying a couple hundred years ago.

References

   1. http://www.slate.com/id/2161456/fr/rss/
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancrene_Wisse
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Usk
   4. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/uskfram3.htm
   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_of_Wyntoun
   6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_I_of_Scotland
   7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_of_England
   8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Heywood
   9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rollock
  10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_%28play%29
  11. http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/Henry_V/22.html
  12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philemon_Holland
  13. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livy
  14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Drayton
  15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly-Olbion
  16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Southerne
  17. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold
  18. 
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/A/ArnoldMatthew/verse/newpoems/saintbrandan.html

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