Aunt

An aunt is relationship that describes a woman who is a sibling of a parent or is married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts are sometimes called Auntie or Aunty. A man is a nephew to their Aunt and a woman is a niece. An aunt is part of an extended family. The child of an aunt's is a cousin. Often the word aunt is used with people who are not related to show closeness or respect.

In many cultures there are different words to describe a person's mother's sister and father's sister. In Latin a mother's sister is matertera while a father's sister is amita.Constance Brittain Bouchard, Those of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia (Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), p. 5.

Detail
A maternal or paternal relative is one who is related through one's mother or father, respectively. For example, a maternal aunt is the subject's mother's sister. An in-law is a relationship that is not by blood, but instead by marriage. The in-law shares the in-law relationships of the spouse's relatives. For example, an aunt in-law could be the wife of the subject's uncle.
 aunt: parent's sister.
 maternal aunt: mother's sister.
 paternal aunt: father's sister.
 half-aunt: parent's half-sister.
 double-half-aunt: a person who is a half-sister of both of the subjects parents.
 grandaunt (or great-aunt): grandparent's sister.
 great-grandaunt (or great-great-aunt): great-grandparent's sister.
 aunt-in-law: uncle/aunt's wife.
 aunt-in-law: spouse's aunt.
 co-aunt-in-law: spouse's uncle/aunt's wife.
 stepaunt: stepparent's sister.
 stepaunt: parent's stepsister.

 References 

Category:Family