Meaning of auncle | Babel Free

Definitions

Used especially as a gender-neutral term: the sibling or sibling-in-law of one's parent.

rare

Examples

“By cross-cousin marriage, the parents-in-law are auncles (mother’s brother, father’s sister), but since we appear⟳ to have⟳ a Lukian term nere for parents-in-law but another, tuhe, for auncles, the Lukian relationship terms do not seem to be based upon a cross-cousin system.”

“And if we are considering all logical possibilities (or anyway all that we can manage⟳ to think⟳ up), and then assigning equal initial a priori probabilities to each, then should we not divide⟳ those having siblings with a child into uncles, aunts, auncles′, auncles″, auncles‴,…, etc., ad infinitum, where we distinguish between the aunclesⁿ(‴…) in whatever way we care to imagine⟳?”

““Do you think⟳ we might have⟳ more than one child?” he ventured. After all, she was the one who’d have⟳ to bear⟳ them. / “Yes, I think⟳ so. You know⟳ the way Mum and LeeLee are, and Kris and Alex. Maybe a bit closer together might be good though, so we don’t end⟳ up with auncles only a little bit older than nevvies.” / “What and which?” / “Auncles?” / “And neivies” / Her face⟳ cleared. “Oh—you don’t use⟳ those words. They’re like⟳ sibling or parent. Non-specific.””

CEFR level