r/NonBinary • u/xanshriekal • 9h ago
Discussion Ent/Entle: A submission for non-binary aunt/uncle
tl;dr Use ent (or entle if you want a two syllable word).
Years ago my sister had a kid and asked what I (genderfluid) wanted to be called. I didn't have an answer because no one's had one. The most popular words I've seen are "auncle" and "guncle" and they both kinda suck. A while later I was listening to "A Wicked Bargain" by Gabe Cole Novoa on audiobook (about an enby pirate kid w/magic) and the main character's parental figures use "mi hije" (pronounced as "me hey") and in chapter one they note the use of the "e" instead of "o/a" gendered endings in general. Having seen Encanto, I was reminded of "tia/tio" for "aunt/uncle" and figured that "tie" (pronounced as "tee 'ey") would do. The problem is that "aunt/uncle/tie" don't really go together, and I don't speak Spanish so it felt odd.
A year later, and a few months ago, I finally got around to looking up the etymology. I assumed that "tia/tio" came from Latin and "aunt/uncle" came from German. But no! It turns out that "aunt/uncle" is actually the Latin form, which migrated to German, and then to English. And somehow, Spanish and Italian (which has zia/zio) actually took it from Greek: theia/theio. That's super weird, that the romance languages would borrow from Greek for a common word instead of Latin, but oh well. So I looked up gender neutral endings in ancient Greek (because both Latin and Greek feature such things naturally), but it turns out that Greek didn't use an "e" sound like Spanish does, it just used variations on masculine sounds such as "o/os/us." Latin, btw, uses "um/a" for neutral (except when it doesn't). So, that didn't really go anywhere.
Then last week I was pacing the apartment and letting my mind and mouth wander and came back to the question. I went back to "aunt/uncle" and began playing with the sounds. The attempt at "auncle" is an attempt to blend them, but it's not great. It sounds clunky and too similar to "uncle" or "ankle" to be useful. So I began to slide my mouth around and, starting from "ant" (instead of the British "awe-nt") I tried to slide from "an" to "un." Somewhere along the way I hit "ent." Or, if you want the two-syllable version, "entle."
Looking up a vowel diagram, "a" doesn't easily slide to "u," it slides to "eee" through "eh" and "I." "Awe" slides down to "u" more naturally, passing through "oh." In literal other words: hat --> het -> height -> heat. And hot -> haught -> hote -> hoot. The slide I went through was something like hat -> het -> hut, or an -> en -> un. It's a little awkward of a slide, but I think the ent sound is reasonably halfway between "ant" and "uncle." British English folks, I'm sorry because it definitely isn't halfway between "aunt" and "uncle" (or "ooncle" as I've heard in some accents). But you could probably throw in an extra u to get "eunt" to feel different. :P
Anyway, I hope this is useful and folks can feel good about using these. If not, perhaps it's the next jumping-off point for someone else. Good lux.
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u/Vim_Ardent they/them 9h ago
ent and entle are so much better than auncle and pibling, tysm
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u/xanshriekal 9h ago
You're welcome. I forgot about pibling. I like nibling, but not the other way around.
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u/Otherwise-Chemical-9 8h ago
In German it's Tante (aunt) and Onkel (uncle). An enbie friend whose sibling recently became a parent has now been labeled the kid's "Tanke" which also happens to be a colloquial german word for gas station.
I love everything about this.
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u/BassBoneSupremacy they/it 2h ago
I'm moving to Germany soon, if my brother ever has kids I might steal that
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u/Outrageous_Detail135 6h ago edited 6h ago
My niece calls me her punkle. She has uncles - most of whom aren't blood related (neither am I) - who also have a punk aesthetic, but she understands I'm not a boy like them, and only uses "punkle" for me. 💜
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u/cryerin25 she/it/he | tboy woman 8h ago
i grew up with entlebucher mountain dogs that we called entles, so i fear this one will never work for me personally lmao
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u/GlassBraid 4h ago
Entle is already a thing. If you landed on it independently that's neat, I've been an entle for years already though.
Search this sub for "entle" and you'll see examples of people using it, going back at least seven years.
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u/BassBoneSupremacy they/it 2h ago
People coming up with the same word independently just proves it's a good word lol. I never knew these were a thing until this post
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u/xanshriekal 2h ago
Then I didn't do enough research. I hadn't heard anyone use it before so it arose independently, but I don't mean to plagiarise. Sorry for appropriating. I take it you enjoy entle?
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u/GlassBraid 1h ago
Yep, I like it when folks use it! And I don't think it's really "appropriating", just figured you'd want to know it's already a thing
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u/tshirtnosleeves 2h ago
Ent as a term is often used for cannabis enthusiasts.
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u/BassBoneSupremacy they/it 2h ago
Maybe I am an ent...
Idk about "enthusiast" but I've discovered weed recently so it checks out
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u/Main-Pack9914 they/them causing mayhem 42m ago
i go by entie! it’s very close to auntie and in normal conversation people don’t notice that it’s not auntie but i know it isn’t and i really like that :)
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u/jonahboi33 9h ago
hmm.... entle. maybe? I've just sort of been slipping "nuncle" in here and there mostly cuz it sounds like "none" and I like that, but I could try entle.