English Explanatory Dictionary

nuncle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Uncle.
  2. Aunt or uncle; sibling of a parent (regardless of gender).
verb
  1. To cheat, deceive.

Word forms

nuncle nuncles nuncling nuncled

Etymology

From rebracketing of phrases an uncle, mine uncle, thine uncle, etc. Compare neam and naunt. For the verb, OED suggests an evolution in sense "to claim to be one's uncle" > "to cheat". It compares this derivation with cozen, which it derives from cousin. For the technical anthropological sense, compare nibling.

Derived words

nunky
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary