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uncle

UK/ˈʌŋ.kl̩/ US/ˈʌŋkʌl/ very common informal slang uk us

noun

1.

the brother of your father or mother; the husband of your aunt

Antonyms
2.

a source of help and advice and encouragement

  • “he played uncle to lonely students”

Origin

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”)).

Phrases

  • agony uncle
  • Bob is your uncle
  • Bob's your uncle
  • Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt
  • cry ~
  • double uncle
  • Dutch uncle
  • holler ~
  • say uncle

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.