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 _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list Volokh@lists.powerblogs.com http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh