Etymologically
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aunt

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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

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