Talk:fam

Use referring to strangers

Recently, I was at a public park in the US when a stranger's dog approached me in a friendly manner. During a conversation as they tried to coax their dog away from me, they referred to me as fam. Our current non-gloss definition for the relevant sense describes it as a term of endearment between friends. Since this was not between friends, I am wondering if our definition needs updating or if there is an undocumented sense. If that was the case, the usage seems to be polite or be part of an implication of shared community. The alternative, is that the usage I witnessed was just a regular extension of usage and so doesn't need separate documentation. I leave that determination up to someone else that has more than a passing familiar with the term's usage. —The Editor's Apprentice (talk) 18:48, 12 July 2022 (UTC)