aunt

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.

• 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]

  Rhymes: -ɑːnt

  Homophone: aren't (some non-rhotic accents)

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• enPR: ănt, IPA^(key): /ænt/^[1]
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): [ænt], [ɛənt], [eənt]
  • (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): [ant], [änt], [ænt]

  Rhymes: -ænt

  Homophone: ant

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• (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

  Homophone: ain't

aunt (plural aunts)

2. 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.

3. The female cousin or cousin-in-law of one’s parent.
4. (endearing) A woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.
5. (obsolete) Any elderly woman.
6. (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.

     The spelling has been modernized.

• auntie, aunty (diminutive)
• auntyji (India, as a respectful term of address)
• naunt (nonstandard, proscribed, dated)

• (with regard to gender) uncle
• (with regard to ancestry) niece, nephew

• (sibling of someone's parent) auncle, pibling (nonstandard)

• tante

• → Hawaiian: ʻanakē
• → Irish: aint
• → Pennsylvania German: Aent
• → Yoruba: àǹtí

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.

• materteral

•   aunt on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• -naut, Tuna, naut., tuan, tuna

aunt

1. Alternative form of aunte