tante

Signification

1. aunt
2. homosexual (man); faggot, fag (US); poof (UK)

Genre

♀️ Féminin

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/tɑ̃t/

Étymologie

Inherited from Middle French tante, alteration of ante, from Old French ante, from Latin amita ("father's sister"). The initial t- is probably due to childish reduplication.
A derivation from t’ante, that is ta ante (“your aunt”), is grammatically possible because the use of ton with vowel-initial feminines is secondary and was only optional in Middle French. However, if a rebracketing of this sort had occurred, one would not expect it to happen with the second-person pronoun, but much rather the first person (thus *mante).

Phrases

Ta tante en a bien quarante-neuf !

Your aunt has forty-nine!