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My daughter’s friend just called me uncle, in English. I don’t run a shop!! 😂😂

– it’s an SEA thing, kids call all adults, including strangers, uncles or aunties. In Indonesia many of us use the Dutch loan words, oom and tante, and very rarely use the English words. Specifically in Malaysia and Singapore, non family aunties and uncles are more often people who run shops, food court stalls, or restaurants.

#TootSEA

#tootsea
in reply to Aulia Masna

modulux
modulux
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Fun thing in Spain. Instead of bro/sis for friends, we use tío/tía (uncle, aunt). It's not meant as something addressed to older or higher status friends, it's an equal thing. If we're friends, you're my uncle, I'm your uncle. It entered youth slang for unknown reasons to me and is now pretty widespread.
in reply to Aulia Masna

modulux
modulux
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Mm, now I'm looking it up. The oldest written antecedents seem to be in 1896 and 1905, but specifically in essays and dictionaries about thieves' cant. Tío used to mean: "contemptable person", "master, boss, lord", "person who carries wallet with valuables". So I'm guessing here but it must have gotten sucked up from narrow use by marginal people to broader use by rebellious youth and now nobody remembers it was thieves' cant in the first place.
in reply to Aulia Masna

modulux
modulux
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The slang thieves and other criminal groups used to talk to each other and not be widely understood by the general public. Thieves' cant is the specific one from the UK so maybe I used the wrong word, but we had a similar one in Spain called germanía. In Spanish words from these dialects often end up in general use.
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