aunt

English

Etymology

From Middle English aunte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman aunte, from Old French ante, from Latin amita (“father's sister”). Displaced native Middle English modrie (“aunt”) (from Old English mōdriġe (“maternal aunt”); compare Old English faþu, faþe (“paternal aunt”)).

Pronunciation

Noun

aunt (plural aunts)

  1. The sister or sister-in-law of one’s parent.
    • 1923, P.G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves:
      As a rule, you see, I'm not lugged into Family Rows. On the occasions when Aunt is calling to Aunt like mastodons bellowing across primeval swamps and Uncle James's letter about Cousin Mabel's peculiar behaviour is being shot round the family circle... the clan has a tendency to ignore me.
  2. (affectionate) A woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.
  3. (obsolete) Any elderly woman.
  4. (obsolete) A procuress or bawd.

Antonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Several languages distinguish between blood aunts (one’s parent’s sister) and in-law aunts (one’s parent’s sister-in-law), some distinguish between paternal and maternal aunts, and some distinguish between one’s parent’s older siblings and younger siblings.

great-aunt or grandaunt — see great-aunt,‎ grandaunt
grandmother — see auntie,‎ grandmother
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

References
  1. The Dialect Survey of US pronunciations

Anagrams
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.