aunt

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɑːnt/, /ænt/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English aunte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman aunte, Old French ante (modern French tante, from a 13th-century variant),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin amita (“paternal aunt”),^[2][3] a diminutive of *amma, a baby-talk word for mother, also the source of Greek amma, mother, and Old Norse amma, grandmother.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sister of one's father or mother: 1297 in the OED, about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Extended senses include an old woman or gossip (1590 in the OED, the 1580s in Etymonline) and a bawd or procuress (1607 in the OED).^[6][3] In American English any kindly elderly woman, and auntie as a term for accosting older women, are from about 1790.^[3][6] The French word also became the word for aunt in Dutch, German (Tante) and Danish, while Swedish keeps separate words for father's sister and mother's sister; the Old English equivalents were faðu and mōdrige.^[3] Aunt Sally, a fairground game of throwing at a figure of a woman's head, is from 1861.^[6]

Timeline

• 1297 – a parent's sister.^[6]
• 1590 – an old woman, a gossip.^[6]
• 1607 – a procuress (obsolete).^[6]
• c. 1790 – auntie, any older woman (US).^[3]
• 1861 – Aunt Sally.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The sister of one's father or mother, or the wife of one's uncle.
2. A term of address used by children for a woman friend of the family.

Word family

• aunthood
• auntlike
• auntly
• Auntie
• aunty
• grandaunt
• great-aunt
• great-grandaunt

Related words

• uncle
• niece
• nephew

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press