Uncle

An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is the sibling of one of a person parents, or a man married to a parent sister, though the latter is technically an uncle-in-law and is usually just called uncle without the distinction. An uncle related by birth is a second-degree relative, the female counterpart is an aunt, and the reciprocal relationship is that of niece or nephew; the word derives from the Latin avunculus, a diminutive of avus, meaning grandfather. In some cultures children also address their parents cousins as uncle or aunt, and the term is used more broadly as a mark of respect for older relatives, neighbors, family friends or even strangers, a form of fictive kinship. Any social institution built around a special relationship between a man and his sisters children is known as an avunculate, a relationship that can be formal or informal depending on the society and that early anthropology linked closely to matrilineal descent. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/