Many Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples address male respected senior members of the community, known as elders, as "uncle" (and women as "aunty") as a mark of seniority and respect, whether related or not, [9] such as Uncle Archie (Roach) [10] and Uncle Jack Charles.
Displaced native Middle English em (“uncle”) from Old English ēam (“maternal uncle”), containing the same Proto-Indo-European root, and Old English fædera (“paternal uncle”).