acquaintance

From Middle English aqueyntaunce, from Anglo-Norman aquaintaunce, aqueintance, Old French acointance (“friendship, familiarity”), from Old French acointier (“to acquaint”). Compare French accointance.

Morphologically acquaint +‎ -ance.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈkweɪntəns/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌˈkweɪn.təns/

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acquaintance (countable and uncountable, plural acquaintances)

1. (uncountable) A state of being acquainted with a person; originally indicating friendship, intimacy, but now suggesting a slight knowledge less deep than that of friendship; acquaintanceship. [from 12th c.]

   I know of the man; but have no acquaintance with him.

   • 1799, “Hito'pade'sa”, in William Jones, transl., The Works, volume 6, page 22:

     Contract no friendſhip, or even acquaintance, with a guileful man : he reſembles a coal, which when hot burneth the hand, and when cold blacketh it.

2. (countable) A person or persons with whom one is acquainted. [from 14th c.]
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XVI, in The History Of England From the Accession of James II:

     Montgomery was an old acquaintance of Ferguson.

3. (uncountable) Such people collectively; one's circle of acquaintances (with plural concord). [from 15th c.]
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 3:

     Having therefore conſulted with my Wife, and ſome of my Acquaintance, I determined to go again to Sea.

   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, →OCLC:

     Their mother […] was busy in the mean time in keeping up her connections, as she termed a numerous acquaintance, lest her girls should want a proper introduction into the great world.

4. Personal knowledge (with a specific subject etc.). [from 16th c.]
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     The words of these songs were either without meaning, or derived from an idiom with which Watt, a very fair linguist, had no acquaintance.

• Synonym notes: The words acquaintance, familiarity, and intimacy now mark different degrees of closeness in social intercourse. Acquaintance arises from occasional intercourse or interaction; as, "our acquaintance has been a brief one". We can speak of a slight or an intimate acquaintance. Familiarity is the result of continued acquaintance. It springs from persons being frequently together, so as to wear off all restraint and reserve; as, "the familiarity of old companions". Intimacy is the result of close connection, and the freest interchange of thought; as, "the intimacy of established friendship".

• familiarity, fellowship, intimacy, knowledge
• See also Thesaurus:acquaintance

• acquaint

• “acquaintance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “acquaintance”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

acquaintance (plural acquaintances)

1. Alternative form of acquantance

• “acquaintance, n.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.