Forget about soulmates. Now it's all about saltmates.

There is a new term being thrown around and it’s never fit me better. Saltmate.

Saltmates play on the idea of being “salty” – that is, being upset or mad and applies it to friendships.

Saltmate. /sɔːlt/meɪt/

Noun.

A saltmate is the friend you can be salty with without fear of judgment.

“Laura and Tina are always bitching about their internet dropping out – they must be saltmates.”

If you have ever shared a rough week with your work-wife and spent ten minutes ranting about how you’ve scoffed two-minute noodles at your desk for five days strong, you have a saltmate.

If you have ever promised you’ll meet a friend for “one drink” after work and had to take a taxi home because you had so much to share about your exes, you have a saltmate.

If you have ever met a girl in a club bathroom and bitched about how the music is shit, the drinks are exxy and the crowd is whack, you, my friend, have a saltmate.

A photo posted by THE BASIC BITCH LIFE (@thebasicbitchlife) on Dec 11, 2016 at 2:43pm PST

I found my first saltmate in Melissa, the freckle-spotted 6-year-old, who would stand with me in the tuck shop line and watch the kids with pocket money dosh out for a sunny boy.

“Did you see Kelly? She had TWO DOLLARS.”

“So unfair.”

“SO UNFAIR!”

But saltmates don’t need to be close friends, they can be the stranger whose eye you catch on the bus after a teenager refuses to give up their seat.

The salty possibilities are endless.

There will be those who argue that it's wrong to "bitch" about negative aspects of life as it will only foster further negativity.

But venting is just an accelerated form of expression.

Sometimes it takes four sentences without one breath, sometimes it takes three gin and tonics and sometimes it takes one well-chosen meme.

The "saltmate" might be a new way to describe that friend in your life but they are nothing new. It's just we've never had the right term to express it.