Talk:Uncle

message: Uncle Remus refers to 'uncle', in that context, as something that many people find offensive, but there's nothing about that here. Should there be? For context, the 1913 Webster entry for 'uncle' includes this: An eldery man; -- used chiefly as a kindly or familiar appellation, esp. (Southern U. S.) for a worthy old negro; as, "Uncle Remus." [Colloq.] --Oolong (talk) 19:33, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Offensive...? 

message: "It is also a title of respect for elders (for example older cousins, neighbors, acquaintances, as well as total strangers), especially in Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, China, Maori culture, and most Pacific Islands."
Could someone go through this list and separate out the people who actually use the term 'Uncle' out of respect, and those which use an equivalent word in their own language? I'm fairly certain that Russian and Japanese, at least, do not need to borrow an English word to create a term of respect.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.13.147.17 (talk) 19:19, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The list of locations has been remove which probably makes the most sense since I'm sure it was unsourced or poorly sourced. I'd note though that there's no reason to assuming any "borrowing" or "own language". The logical reading of the text is that it's the word they use when they speak English, and possibly they use an equivalent word in a different language when speaking that language. Just because someone is Russian or Japanese doesn't mean they never speak English. Indeed in the case of 'total strangers', it may be reasonable to expect given (for better or worse) the global dominance that English will often be the language spoken when engaging with foreign tourists. Nil Einne (talk) 03:53, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Term of Respect? 

message: What relation would my Grandfather's brother's son, be to me?  Would he be an Uncle once removed?Wenin (talk) 16:01, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: First cousin once removed. (Your father and him are first cousins, so you and him are first cousins once removed.) 91.105.31.47 (talk) 12:25, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other Non-Direct Uncles? 

message: The article states: "Although the term "great uncle/aunt" is often used, it is, strictly speaking, incorrect." The reference that claims that "great-uncle" is not correct is very biased. The terms grandaunt and granduncle were first used in the 1800s while greataunt and granduncle were used in the 1600s. Apparently some Americans in the 1800s forgot the middle-English origins of the relationship and reanalysed it in terms of "grand" . Someone later invented the idea that "great" is an incorrect prefix for aunt and uncle. Not sure what references could be used to refute this error but the usage of great-aunt and great uncle long precede this usage. Dutch uses a similar construction grootoom for great-uncle. I suppose the logic in claiming that it is not correct is at fault: Since grand means a familial relationship one step removed, and great means a familial relationship once removed that in all other cases is associated with grand, it then must imply that using great for some familial relationship (aunt or uncle) cannot be correct. However, it is one thing to claim this, but another thing to be correct. Obviously the terms great-aunt and great-uncle were used prior to any dictionaries making a claim about the prefixes grand or great. Perhaps the terms grandaunt and granduncle were coined by Webster along with his correction of the not correct English? Twocs (talk) 09:51, 16 November 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with you. Not only is the second paragraph prescriptive rather than descriptive, it has an entirely inappropriate tone for an encyclopedia. Particularly the final sentence, which ends, "...so to be consistent why use "great" in conjunction with uncles and aunts." Most of it needs to be deleted entirely.174.60.46.129 (talk) 16:24, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

text: Also agree.  Great uncle is a much more popular usage. I've removed all the contentious content. Martin Tod (talk) 09:47, 5 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Great uncle 

message: Uncle and Aunt are currently separate articles but overlap too much in their content. I suggest a merger to uncle and aunt similar to nephew and niece. There are more important familial relations where the genders aren't separated as they are in this case. Brother and sister both redirect to sibling while grandmother and grandfather both redirect to grandparents.
;Support
#Support as nominator. Gizza (t)(c) 04:18, 16 April 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Nobody has still given an explanation as to why brother/sister and uncle/aunt should be treated differently. Not to mention grandfather/grandmother. Non-English languages wikis links will be a headache no matter what path is chosen. There are languages with 4 different common words for each grandparent unlike English.  Gizza (t)(c) 09:44, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger Proposal 

message: Surely this should be 25%.  Kostaki mou (talk) 16:54, 17 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  30% genetic overlap? 

message: Why have a long list of uncles in music, film, tv etc? These in popular culture-sections are getting out of hand. Edward Mordake (talk) 10:27, 23 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of uncles 

message: However, Wiktionary reads "a brother or brother-in-law of one's grandparent." --Backinstadiums (talk) 10:45, 7 August 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  A great-uncle is the brother of one's grandparent