acquaintance

plural acquaintances

1. uncountableA state of being acquainted with a person; originally indicating friendship, intimacy, but now suggesting a slight knowledge less deep than that of friendship; acquaintanceship.First known use 12th c.

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

   1 more example

   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.

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

2. countableA person or persons with whom one is acquainted.First known use 14th c.

   Montgomery was an old acquaintance of Ferguson.

   1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XVI, in The History Of England From the Accession of James II

3. uncountableSuch people collectively; one's circle of acquaintances (with plural concord).First known use 15th c.

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

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC

4. countableuncountablePersonal knowledge (with a specific subject etc.).First known use 16th c.

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

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC