{"id":17452,"date":"2018-05-20T10:50:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T17:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/?p=17452"},"modified":"2018-05-19T15:05:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T22:05:03","slug":"auncle-ommer-ontle-gender-neutral-aunt-uncle-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/2018\/05\/20\/auncle-ommer-ontle-gender-neutral-aunt-uncle-term\/","title":{"rendered":"auncle, ommer, ontle: gender-neutral aunt\/uncle term?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I was idly wondering a few days ago whether there\u2019s a non-gendered term for an aunt or uncle. Such a term might be useful (for example) for referring collectively to a group of aunts and uncles, or for referring to a specific aunt-or-uncle of unknown gender, or for referring to a nonbinary-gendered aunt or uncle.<\/p>\r\n

But before I got around to posting the question, Mya coincidentally asked the same question<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

It turns out that there isn\u2019t a widely used term in English. But see comments on Mya\u2019s post for various suggestions, serious and otherwise.<\/p>\r\n

A couple of the proposed terms, notably parsib<\/i> and pibling<\/i>, are in use by various people, but as Mya notes, terms based on the word sibling<\/i> \u201caren\u2019t inclusive of the way \u2018aunt\u2019 & \u2018uncle\u2019 are often honorary titles for family friends or community adults.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

I\u2019ve also seen auncle<\/i>, but as with most neologisms I come across, I find that aesthetically unsatisfying.<\/p>\r\n

Ann Leckie\u2019s novel Provenance<\/cite> uses the term nuncle<\/i> to refer to third-gendered parent-siblings, but (a) that\u2019s specifically referring to a particular third gender, not a gender-neutral term, and (b) it\u2019s a traditional word for uncle<\/i> in some English dialects.<\/p>\r\n

I think my personal favorite of the various terms suggested in the discussion on Mya\u2019s post is ommer<\/i>. I don\u2019t know the derivation, but I like the sound of it. Even though I like being Uncle Jed to various kids, I think I would be okay with someone calling me Ommer Jed.<\/p>\r\n

PS: Maybe after we find a gender-neutral noun, the adjective form (corresponding to avuncular<\/i>) will become obvious, but in the meantime, that too is lacking in English. I personally am fond of avauntular<\/i>, but only as a joke. I suppose the adjective form of ommer<\/i> would be something like ommerical<\/i>? Or ommerish<\/i>?<\/p>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17454,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17452\/revisions\/17454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}