uncle
uncle the brother of one's father or mother or the husband of one's aunt; the word comes (in Middle English, via Old French) from a late Latin alteration of Latin avunculus ‘maternal uncle’.
From the mid 18th century, uncle has been used as an informal name for a pawnbroker, perhaps as a humorous reference to the relationship implied by the pawnbroker's taking charge of a person's possessions.
Uncle Joe the British wartime nickname for Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) as the personification of Soviet Russia; the name is first recorded in a comment made by Winston Churchill to Franklin Roosevelt in 1943.
Uncle Remus the elderly slave who is the narrator of Joel Chandler Harris's Brer Rabbit stories; the first book in the series (published 1880) was entitled Uncle Remus, his songs and his sayings; the folk-lore of the old plantation.
Uncle Sam a personification of the federal government or citizens of the US. Recorded from the early 19th century, it is said (from the time of the first recorded instances) to have arisen as a facetious expansion of the letters US.
Uncle Tom a black man considered to be excessively obedient or servile, from the name of the hero of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). The book was seen at the time as dramatizing the question of abolition.
See also Dutch uncle.
From the mid 18th century, uncle has been used as an informal name for a pawnbroker, perhaps as a humorous reference to the relationship implied by the pawnbroker's taking charge of a person's possessions.
Uncle Joe the British wartime nickname for Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) as the personification of Soviet Russia; the name is first recorded in a comment made by Winston Churchill to Franklin Roosevelt in 1943.
Uncle Remus the elderly slave who is the narrator of Joel Chandler Harris's Brer Rabbit stories; the first book in the series (published 1880) was entitled Uncle Remus, his songs and his sayings; the folk-lore of the old plantation.
Uncle Sam a personification of the federal government or citizens of the US. Recorded from the early 19th century, it is said (from the time of the first recorded instances) to have arisen as a facetious expansion of the letters US.
Uncle Tom a black man considered to be excessively obedient or servile, from the name of the hero of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). The book was seen at the time as dramatizing the question of abolition.
See also Dutch uncle.
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
uncle