unc

See also: UNC

English

Alternative forms

• unk

Etymology 1

Clipping of uncle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌŋk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Adjective

unc (comparative more unc, superlative most unc)

1. (originally African-American Vernacular, Internet slang) Old; no longer versed in or relevant to current youth culture.
   • 2025 December 22, Anna Silman, “This Is the Year Millennials Officially Got Old”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 December 2025:

     Millennials’ very existence has become so embarrassing to Gen Z-ers that they’ve coined a phrase for it: “millennial cringe.” […] We are now unc and frequently also washed.

   • 2026 March 24, Morgan Park, “Marathon review”, in PC Gamer‎^[2], archived from the original on 1 April 2026:

     Those qualities make it more accessible to a range of people who struggle to keep up in faster games while maintaining a skill range in other disciplines: timing, positioning, and perception. It's fairly easy to track targets, but you're still rewarded for nailing headshots, taking the high ground, and utilizing shell abilities. Does that make Marathon an unc game? You decide, but as a freshly minted literal uncle, it does speak to me.

   • [2026 April 15, Keza MacDonald, The Guardian‎^[3], archived from the original on 17 April 2026:

     What the heck is an unc game? It didn’t take me long to discover that “unc” (short for uncle) is the latest semi-disparaging gen Z name for anyone over about 30. Further back, it originated as AAVE slang. “Uncslop” refers to the implicitly terrible games beloved by this older generation of players; basically anything made in the 1990s or 2000s, from Knights of the Old Republic to World of Warcraft. An unc game, then, is a game predominantly played by millennials (and older) – and Marathon is one of them. A week or so later, I read Emanuel Maiberg’s article for 404 Media, which dug into the game’s unc credentials.]

Derived terms

• uncslop

Noun

unc (plural uncs)

1. (colloquial, neologism) Clipping of uncle.
2. (originally African-American Vernacular, Internet slang) An older male relative.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     Then Pangborn would find him and ask him what he thought he was doing here. He would ask if Ace had a job. He didn't, and he couldn't even claim he had come back to visit his unc, because Pop had been in his junkshop when the place burned down.

   1. (by extension) Any older man, especially middle-aged.
      • 2024 March 11, Kyle Swenson, Amber Ferguson, “A TikToker raised $400K for an unhoused man. Then things got messy.”, in The Washington Post‎^[4], archived from the original on 22 March 2024:

        Yo, TikTok, we need to raise money for Unc.

      • 2025 March 17, Andrew Marantz, “The Battle for the Bros”, in The New Yorker‎^[5], →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 March 2025:

        Now he’s [Hasan Piker] thirty-three—so old, in streamer years, that his fans call him “unc.”

Synonyms

• unkie
• unky

References

• “Unk, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Etymology 2

Clipping of uncoordinated.

Noun

unc (plural uncs)

1. (genomics) A phenotype of Caenorhabditis elegans that moves in an uncoordinated manner.
   • 1979, David Hirsh et al., Eucaryotic gene regulation‎^[6]:

     The Bristol chromosome I was marked with mutations in two widely spaced genes, dpy-5 (e61 ) and unc-54 (el 90). A strain homozygous for these markers is dumpy and uncoordinated.

   • 1999, Aloi, Jane Elizabeth, Student study guide to accompany general zoology‎^[7]:

     The most intriging mutated gene is called an "unc" gene for uncoordinated. In this mutant, the modified gene is expressed as an alteration of the muscle tissue. The worm does not move in the typical nematode fashion. Insights concerning the modified mechanism in these "unc" worms may provide insight into such diseases as muscular dystrophy.

   • 2006, Caldwell, Guy A, Integrated genomics : a discovery-based laboratory course‎^[8], page 207:

     Unc animals do not move in the normal sinusoidal pattern of wildtype animals.

   • 2017, Meneely, Philip Mark, author, Genetics : genes, genomes, and evolution‎^[9]:

     Mutations in the lon-2 gene result in worms that are unusually long (Lon), while mutations in the unc-78 gene result in worms that are uncoordinated (Unc).

Anagrams

• NUC, cun, nuc

Middle English

Pronoun

unc

1. alternative form of unk

Middle High German

Etymology

From Old High German unc, from Proto-Germanic *ungwiz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éngʷʰis (“snake”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈunk/

Noun

unc m

1. a snake, a serpent, a basilisk
   1. the Devil

Declension

Declension of unc (strong masculine without umlaut)

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	dër	unc	die	unke
genitive	eines	dës	unkes	dër	unke
dative	eime	dëm	unke	dën	unken
accusative	einen	dën	unc	die	unke

Descendants

• German: Unke

References

• Benecke, Georg Friedrich; Müller, Wilhelm; Zarncke, Friedrich (1863), “unc”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel

Old English

Etymology

A conflation of Proto-Germanic *unk (accusative) and *unkiz (dative).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /unk/, [uŋk]

Pronoun

unc

1. accusative/dative of wit: (to) us two
   • "The Wife's Lament", line 10

     Ongunnon þæt þæs monnes magas hycgan þurh dyrne geþoht, þæt hy todælden unc.

     The person's relatives began to think of a secret plan to separate us both.

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ungwiz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éngʷʰis (“snake”).

Noun

unc m

1. snake
2. toad

Descendants

• Middle High German: unc
  • German: Unke