uncle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The brother of your mother or father, or your aunt's husband.

   My uncle has a boat.

2. 2
   noun

   A close male friend of one's parents, treated like family.

   We always called him Uncle Joe, though he wasn't a real relative.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Uncle came through Old French from Latin avunculus, meaning “uncle on the mother’s side.” In the late 16th century, reinterpretation of an uncle as a nuncle produced the parallel form nuncle.

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…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary