auntie

See also: Auntie

English

Alternative forms

• aunty

Etymology

Etymology tree

English aunt

Proto-Germanic *-j-, *-ij-

Proto-West Germanic *-i, *-ī

Old English -iġ

Middle English -y

English -y

English -ie

English auntie

From aunt + -ie.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.ti/, /ˈɑːn.ti/
• (Ghana) IPA^(key): /ˈɐn.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːnti, -ænti
• Homophones: ante, any, anti (in some accents)

Noun

auntie (plural aunties)

1. (endearing) Diminutive of aunt.

   Coordinate term: unkie

2. (Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand) Term of familiarity or respect for a middle-aged or elderly woman.
3. (Hong Kong) Female domestic helper.
4. (LGBTQ, slang, US) An elderly gay man.

Usage notes

• In some lects this is the most common spoken form for aunt.
• In some regions, the spelling aunty is more common.
• In New Zealand, the usage for any respected elder figure is especially common among Māori.

Synonyms

• aunt

Derived terms

• agony auntie
• auntie arm
• kopi auntie
• summon auntie

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: anti
• Torres Strait Creole: anti
• → Burmese: အန်တီ (anti)
• ⇒ Chinese: 安娣 (āndī)
• → Pennsylvania German: Aendi
• → Scottish Gaelic: antaidh
• → Ulithian: aanti
• → Yoruba: àǹtí

Translations

Diminutive of aunt

• Catalan: tieta (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阿姨 (zh) (āyí), 老大媽 / 老大妈 (zh) (lǎodàmā)

• Czech: tetička (cs) f
• Esperanto: onjo (eo)
• Finnish: tätönen
• French: tantine (fr) f, tata (fr) f, tatie (fr) f
• German: Tantchen (de) f
• Greek: θείτσα (el) f (theítsa)
• Hungarian: nénike (hu)
• Indonesian: tante (id)
• Italian: zietta (it) f, ziettina f, ziuccia f
• Japanese: おばさん (ja) (obasan), おばちゃん (obachan)
• Ladino: tanti f
• Norman: tantinne f (Jersey)
• Polish: ciocia (pl) f
• Portuguese: titia (pt) f
• Romanian: mătușică (ro) f, tușică (ro) f
• Russian: тётенька (ru) f (tjótenʹka), тётушка (ru) f (tjótuška), тётя (ru) f (tjótja),
• Slovene: tetka f, tetica f
• Spanish: tiita (es) f, tiíta (es) f, tití f

See also

• uncle

Verb

auntie (third-person singular simple present aunties, present participle auntying, simple past and past participle auntied)

1. To be or behave like the aunt of.
   • 1994, Maria Guadalupe Serna-Perez, Entrepreneurship, Women's Roles, and the Domestic Cycle:

     In the same melodrama, Madame Rotschild, a supporting character plays a similar role by "auntying" all children as a rich and powerful woman who can solve most problems in children's own homes.

   • 2003, Richard M. Lerner, Handbook of applied developmental science:

     More and more children are being "auntied" by women in the community who feel it is their duty as mothers to care for parentless children.

   • 2011, Salvatore Scibona, The End, page 72:

     She had had only one unmitigated success in bending the girl to her will over the many years she'd auntied her: She had peeled the dialect right olf Lina's tongue.

   • 2019, Keturah Kendrick, No Thanks: Black, Female, and Living in the Martyr-Free Zone:

     “I am the best auntie of any auntie that has ever auntied,” she'd say, and in doing so reshape herself into the image her community needed to see.

Anagrams

• Uniate