aunt
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English aunte, 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”)). The digraph ⟨au⟩ representing /æ ~ ɑː/ instead of the expected /ɔː/ is irregular, and has not been conclusively explained.
Pronunciation
[edit]- enPR: änt, IPA(key): /ɑːnt/[1]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): [ɑːnt]
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): [äːnt], [ɐːnt]
- (Atlantic Canada, Tidewater, SAE) IPA(key): [ɒːnt]
- (New England) IPA(key): [ɑːnt], [aːnt]
- (African-American Vernacular) IPA(key): [äːnt], [ɑːnt]
- enPR: ănt, IPA(key): /ænt/[1]
- (General American, Canada) IPA(key): [ænt], [ɛənt], [eənt]
- (Northern England, Ireland) IPA(key): [ant], [änt], [ænt]
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /ant/, [änt]
- (New England) enPR: ônt, IPA(key): /ɔnt/[1]
- Rhymes: -ɔːnt
- (African-American Vernacular) enPR: ŭnt, IPA(key): /ʌnt/
- Rhymes: -ʌnt
- (Southern US) enPR: ānt, IPA(key): /eɪnt/ [1]
- Rhymes: -eɪnt
Noun
[edit]aunt (plural aunts)
- The sister or sister-in-law of one’s parent.
- 1923, P.G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves:
- The female cousin or cousin-in-law of one’s parent.
- (endearing) A woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.
- (obsolete) Any elderly woman.
- (obsolete) A procuress or bawd.
- c. 1604–1606 (date written; published 1608), Thomas Middleton, “A Trick to Catch the Old One”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton […] (The English Dramatists), volume II, London: John C. Nimmo […], published 1885, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 267:
- I saw neither hope of his reclaiming, nor comfort in his being; and was it not then better bestowed upon his uncle than upon one of his aunts?—I need not say bawd, for every one knows what aunt stands for in the last translation.
Synonyms
[edit]- auntie, aunty (diminutive)
- auntyji (India, as a respectful term of address)
- naunt (nonstandard, proscribed, dated)
Antonyms
[edit]Hypernyms
[edit]- (sibling of someone's parent) auncle, pibling (nonstandard)
Hyponyms
[edit]- aunt-in-law
- co-aunt
- cousin-aunt
- double aunt
- grandaunt, great-grandaunt, great-aunt
- half aunt, maternal half aunt, paternal half aunt
- second aunt
- (sister of someone's father) paternal aunt
- (sister of someone's mother) maternal aunt
- stepaunt
Derived terms
[edit]- agony aunt, agony auntie, agony aunty
- auntcest
- auntdom
- Aunt Edna
- Aunt Emma
- Aunt Flo
- aunt fucker
- aunthood
- aunticide
- Auntie
- auntie, aunty
- Auntie Beeb
- aunting
- aunt-in-law
- auntish
- Aunt Jane
- Aunt Jemima
- auntless
- auntlike
- auntly
- Aunt Minnie
- aunt nell
- auntness
- Aunt Sally
- auntship
- Aunt Thomasina
- auntyish
- auntyji
- co-aunt
- cousin-aunt
- double aunt
- grandaunt
- great-aunt
- great-grandaunt
- half aunt
- if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle, if my uncle had tits, he'd be my aunt
- kopi auntie, kopi aunty
- maiden-auntish, maiden-auntishness
- maternal aunt
- maternal half aunt
- mine aunt
- my aunt Fanny
- my giddy aunt
- my sainted aunt
- naunt
- paternal aunt
- paternal half aunt
- please excuse my dear Aunt Sally
- second aunt
- stepaunt
- step-aunt
- summon auntie
- uncle or aunt
- wine aunt
- wouldn't call the Queen my aunt
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Translations
[edit]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.
a parent's sister or sister-in-law
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affectionate term for an older woman, by means of fictive kin
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]aunt
- Alternative form of aunte
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɑːnt
- Rhymes:English/ɑːnt/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ænt
- Rhymes:English/ænt/1 syllable
- Rhymes:English/ɔːnt
- Rhymes:English/ɔːnt/1 syllable
- Rhymes:English/ʌnt
- Rhymes:English/ʌnt/1 syllable
- Rhymes:English/eɪnt
- Rhymes:English/eɪnt/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English endearing terms
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Female family members
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns