familiar stranger
nounEtymology Coined by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1972.
1
A stranger who is nonetheless recognized by another from regularly sharing a common physical space such as a street or bus stop, but with whom one does not interact.
Social psychology
- The familiar stranger is someone we meet every morning at the bus stop or at the campus, but we have never talked with.2018, Davide Spallazzo, Ilaria Mariani, Location-Based Mobile Games: Design Perspectives, Springer, →ISBN, page 39: