Framily (Is That Even a Word)?

By Jamie Kirk

Interesting, when I looked in the Webster Dictionary for framily, which I am confident is a word, the first seven words I found were frameless, family, foamily, creamily, dreamily, beamily and filmily.  But not the word framily.  I looked at Facebook and saw several references to the word with pictures of 20 people packed into a small 3 x 3 square. Then I went to Instagram and saw 371,820 posts that had the hashtag framily.  So, I am confident it is a word. 

Unfortunately, I got discouraged and began to think, maybe it isn’t a word.  Maybe it is one of those dumb terms that are made up that stick around for a few summers, used in a catchy pop song and then dies.  Then I thought it was an urban myth; that the word was created by mistake for someone trying to combine the words frame & family to mean that “one must always protect the boundaries of the foundation of one’s family”. And then finally, I rationalized the word was born and used by a popular TV personality like someone on the RHOA or by Ellen DeGeneres so it was approved by the producers to use, even though it was not confirmed to mean anything (kinda like the word bae or yasss). So, maybe it’s not a word, kinda makes sense, I guess.

But then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  What is that feeling you have when something happens to you good, bad or indifferent, okay, let’s be honest, it’s normally bad; you pick up the phone and you call the bestie. Or that feeling you get when you get two tickets to see the Falcons play; you invite your roommate. Then there are times when you’re about to move in with your partner, and you need that final vote of confidence, you call your mentor that you used to work with 15 years ago.  How do you put a label on these feelings and actions? I got it, you call those folks FRAMILY.

Framily is 1000% a word that means (by my definition), folks that you have deliberately and conscientiously hand-picked to share your life with. Framily are folks that hang around after the job loss, the parents’ death, the divorce, the child that refuses to go to college, the tattoos that were bad decisions when you were 22-25; without providing feedback or judgement. These folks continually show up and sometimes “show out” on our behalf. ON time, EVERY time. These chosen few seldom need to hear excuses or apologies because they just accept us as we are.

According to Instagram, this word is used frequently around the holidays, particularly around Thanksgiving.  The word incites a feeling of appreciation and gratefulness. During the holidays, there is no better time than to acknowledge the folks in our life that make us better. Better friends, better lovers, better students, better parents, and better employees. By providing us unconditional love, we are able to give unconditional love to others. As the holidays come and go, we should all take a minute (maybe even right now) and give our framily a shout-out of peace and blessings. They deserve it.  After all, Webster and his crew may not recognize this word as legit, but we certainly can.

Bubble/Box

Let’s petition to get .bae, yasss and framily included in the next version of Webster’s Dictionary

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Jamie Kirk works for a software company and is a certified spinning instructor. He also enjoys yoga, swimming, bicycling and running. He aspires to start a blog about what we put in our bodies not only fuels our body but our mind and spirit as well. Follow Jamie on IG @tysonsdad