Friend of a friend

Friend of a friend (FOAF) is a phrase used to refer to someone that one does not know well — literally, a friend of a friend.

In some social sciences, the phrase is used as a half-joking shorthand for the fact that much of the information on which people act comes from distant sources (as in "It happened to a friend of a friend of mine") and cannot be confirmed. It is probably best known from urban legend studies. The term was popularized by Jan Harold Brunvand, the best-known writer of that field. It was apparently first published by Rodney Dale in his 1978 book "The Tumour in the Whale" - WH Allen ISBN 0-426-18710-5, in which he discussed the "FOAFtale".

The rise of social network services has led to increased use of this term.

See also

* "Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi" [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irish_proverbs (Irish proverb)] — a similar Irish language term literally meaning "a woman told me that a woman told her that…"