About

Fren is an internet slang term meaning "friend," which is often used in the context of interior monologue caption images featuring animals.

Origin

On October 31st, 2011, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Fren of Mah Fren submitted an entry for "Mah Fren," defining it as a phrase "derived from 'my friend'" (shown below).

Spread

On October 9th, 2014, Urban Dictionary^[3] user nxtfari submitted an entry for the term, defining it as "(n.) friend, esp. a close one" (shown below).

On July 22nd, 2016, YouTuber BaggyAndMaskyFTW uploaded audio of the band Twenty One Pilots performing the song "Coconut Sharks In The Water" with the word "fren" displayed with the lyrics of the song on top of a picture of the Left Shark (shown below).

On October 18th, 2018, a post titled "Me🐕irl" was submitted to /r/me_irl,^[1] featuring an Evolution Can You Give Me Wings image macro of a wolf evolving into a dog and saying "fren time" (shown below). Within five months, the post gathered upwards of 10,900 points (79% upvoted) and 120 comments.

On November 28th, Redditor Chris_Isur_Dude uploaded a video of two foxes titled "Lil fox loses his fren and is completely bamboozled," which gathered more than 91,800 points (93% upvoted) and 620 comments on /r/aww^[2] prior to being archived.

Dolan

MS Paint comics featuring the character Dolan frequently use the term "fren" among other intentionally misspelled words (shown below).

Apu Apustaja

The poorly drawn Pepe the Frog character Apu Apustaja is often associated with the term in posts on 4chan, referring to those reading the posts as "frens" (shown below).

On April 4th, 2019, Twitter user @Gatman94^[5] tweeted at Right Wing Watch writer Jared Holt, asking if he had seen "fren" being used by white nationalists (shown below). In response, several users replied with pictures of Apu Apustaja and Clown Pepe. On April 10th, a screenshot of the tweet was submitted to 4chan's /int/^[6] board, along with the message "Dont use the word 'fren'. is racist"

Search Interest

External References