English 'aunt' derives from Old French 'ante,' from Latin 'amita' meaning 'father's sister,' rooted in a PIE nursery word for a female caregiver — though in modern English it covers both paternal and maternal aunts, erasing a distinction that Latin carefully preserved.
The sister of one's father or mother; also the wife of one's uncle.
From Old French 'ante,' from Latin 'amita' meaning 'father's sister.' Latin 'amita' is from a PIE root related to the nursery word for mother, *amma, distinguished from the maternal aunt ('matertera,' from 'mater'). As with uncle, Old French collapsed the Latin distinction between paternal aunt ('amita') and maternal aunt ('matertera'), and Middle