the.com/great uncle
the relative who's basically a grandparent with better stories and fewer obligations
means The brother of one of your grandparents — that is, the uncle of your parent — sitting one generation above your own aunts and uncles.
from A transparent compound: "uncle" comes through Old French "oncle" from Latin "avunculus," meaning a mother's brother, which literally softens to "little grandfather." The "great" here is the same English intensifier used in "great-grandfather," marking a step further up the family tree — a usage English borrowed in spirit from French "grand," which is why we say "grandfather" but "great-uncle."
- genetic share
- shares roughly 12.5 percent of your DNA
- the comma
- great-uncle with hyphen, great uncle without means superb
- sibling origin
- is a grandparent's brother, by blood or marriage
- old term
- once called granduncle, still technically correct
- generation gap
- sits two generations above you on the tree