Happy Belated Father’s Day!

I got as far as choosing three words and writing three words last week when other events conspired against getting a blog written. They weren’t great words for Father’s Day anyway, so a week’s delay doesn’t mean you missed using them in a timely manner.

The first word that came to mind was avuncular. Very simply, it means anything pertaining to or having the characteristic of an uncle. That’s assuming we all have the same idea what an uncle is, but that’s an entirely different blog. Proving that you can’t believe every online source, Dictionary.com lists it as coming to English somewhere between 1825 and 1835 while etymonline.com dates it specifically at 1789. Both say it came directly from the Latin avunculus, which means maternal uncle, although its literal translation is “little grandfather”.  While some languages (like Latin) distinguish between a maternal uncle and a paternal uncle (in Latin faedera) English does not.

However, there are several  axiomatic uses of the word uncle that may or may not be familiar to you. In North America, to “say uncle” or “cry uncle” is to indicate during a fight that you concede; it is still in wide use today. Since 1838 the phrase “Dutch uncle” has had currency, to refer to someone who gives stern but kind advice, and as far back as 1747 “Welsh uncle” indicated your parent’s cousin.

I have never noticed in reading old books, but apparently the word uncle was used as a humorous and less embarrassing word for pawnbroker between the 1600s and 1900s (even before referring to your parent’s brother). It is easier to say “I left my ring with my uncle” than to admit you pawned it.

For some reason (and it has nothing to do with any of my uncles) I associate the word ursine with avuncular, probably because I learned them at about the same time, possibly from the same book. Ursine, for astronomers, is easy. The Big Bear and Little Bear are constellations known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. So astronomers would recognize that ursine means bearlike and comes from Latin. It has been used in English since the 1550s, and is generally used  to refer to a large, hairy man.  However, for large, hairy men who remember the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, you will remember Ursula Andress (in her role as first “Bond Girl” Honey Ryder) dramatically coming out of the ocean. Ursula means “she-bear”, but that isn’t the most descriptive word for Honey Ryder (she certainly wasn’t hairy).  The word vulpine comes more to mind.

Vulpine also comes from Latin, from the word vulpes, which is what those who spoke Latin called the fox. (Honey Ryder was in many ways foxy.) Because we associate foxes with being sly and cunning vulpine is a more obscure way of saying someone is sly and cunning. (“How very vulpine of you.”) It came to English at the same time that the Mayflower came to Massachusetts (1620).  

So whether they’re avuncular, ursine, or vulpine, it’s never too late to say “Happy Father’s Day” to a dad (which while first recorded in about 1500 is probably of much older usage as an informal word for father).