Search results
People also ask
When did cry uncle come out?
Why do people cry for their uncle?
What does Cry Uncle mean?
Where did 'uncle' come from?
Feb 21, 2011 · ORIGINS OF 'CRY UNCLE' Published Feb. 21, 2011. Why is the wrestling term "cry uncle," and not aunt or anything else? There is no definitive history on the origin of the phrase, though...
Nov 28, 1998 · This call by one child for another to submit or cry for mercy — which appears variously as say uncle!, cry uncle! or holler uncle! — is first recorded in print in the US early in the twentieth century.
This phrase originated about 1900 as an imperative among school-children who would say, “Cry uncle when you've had enough (of a beating).” By the mid-1900s it was being used figuratively, as in the examples.
A fanciful suggestion is that it may be based on a joke from 19th-century England about a bullied parrot being coaxed to address his owner's uncle. [1] [3] Another suggested origin is from the English phrase “time out”, a plea to cease hostilities.
This phrase originated about 1900 as an imperative among school-children who would say, "Cry uncle when you've had enough (of a beating)." By the mid-1900s it was being used figuratively, as in the examples. See also: cry, uncle. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Oct 5, 2016 · Most American schoolboys are (perhaps unhappily) familiar with the expression cry uncle or holler uncle, meaning “give up in a fight, ask for mercy.” Uncle in this expression is surely a folk etymology, and the Irish original of the word is anacol (anacal, anacul) “act of protecting; deliverance; mercy, quarter.”
Aug 31, 2023 · cry uncle (third-person singular simple present cries uncle, present participle crying uncle, simple past and past participle cried uncle) ( US, colloquial) To beg for mercy; to give up, admit defeat. [from 19th c.]
