uncle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the brother of a father or mother

   My uncle has a boat.

2. 2
   noun

   a source of help and advice and encouragement

   I played uncle to lonely students.

3. 3
   noun

   The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.

   And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.

4. 4
   noun

   A pawnbroker.

   December 1843, William Makepeace Thackeray, "Grant in Paris" (review), in Fraser's Magazine A chain hangs out of the pocket of his velvet waistcoat , by which we may conclude that he has a watch , though we have known many gents whose watches were at their uncle's (as the fashionable term for the pawnbroker goes)

5. 5
   noun

   An older African-American male.

   Plain old uncle as he [Socrates] was, with his great ears, — an immense talker.

6. 6
   verb

   To act like, or as, an uncle.

   Betelgeuse Five, where he both fathered and uncled Ford

7. 7
   noun

   The male cousin of one’s parent.

8. 8
   noun

   Used as a fictive kinship title for a close male friend of one's parent or parents.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os Latin avunculus Old French unclebor. Middle English uncle English uncle From Middle English uncle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman uncle and Old French oncle, from Vulgar Latin *aunclum, from Latin avunculus (“maternal uncle”, literally “little grandfather”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂euh₂-n-tlo- (“little grandfather”), a dialectal diminutive of *h₂éwh₂ō (“grandfather, adult male relative other than one’s father”) (whence also Latin avus (“grandfather”)). Displaced native Middle English em (“uncle”) from Old English ēam (“maternal uncle”), containing t…