Talk:Say Uncle

Still a disambiguation page?

I've added a short explanation of the expression 'say uncle', and also at the 'Uncle' page (a stub). I'm not sure if this one should still be called a 'disambiguation page', but the information surely belongs here. Earthlyreason (talk) 06:44, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

 Done. Grollτeh (talk) 10:10, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Roman origin

The explanation of an Ancient Roman origin for the expression cites a web article as reference, but that article itself does not have references. A contemporary source would be needed to establish that claim.
Moreover, the Ancient Rome theory will be very dubious if it turns out that the expression is found only in American English, and not in any Romance language. (I am a native speaker of Portuguese, and somewhat fluent in Italian and Venetian, but I have never seen it used in those languages, or in any other language for that matter.)
--Jorge Stolfi (talk) 15:53, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Needs clarification

The section Foreign-language analog consists of the sentence:

" There is a common analog in the Arabian Peninsula, the expression "قول عمي" ([q]uwl 'aamiy), which means "say uncle"."

Unfortunately, this requires clarification. Because "Say uncle!" in English means "Give up?", it is not clear whether this sentence is stating that the phrase in Arabic means "Give up?" or whether it contains a literal reference to the brother of a parent.50.205.142.35 (talk) 16:03, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

I'm from the mentioned region, I don't recall hearing anyone use it, but we have something similar, we use the expression "قول توبة" which means "Say Repentance" and it used similarly to "Say Uncle". UA3 (talk) 16:21, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Apologia

Tried to correct a mispelling and add context but was working on a mobile device and had (many) problems. I made the revision log a disgusting mess. Mea culpa doleo. SmarterAlec (talk) 21:28, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Povedz ujo

In Slovakia beginning of the 80's children used to say this phrase to mean submit. 2A02:8388:6C3F:DD80:8D14:16CE:33D0:CFF7 (talk) 16:37, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

Supposed Irish origin

The "Origin" section includes the claim "Due to heavy Irish immigration in eastern Canada and New England in the 19th century, it is likely an anglicization of the Irish 'anacal', meaning deliverance or quarter." The assertion that this origin is "likely" is misleading; as far as I can tell, there is no consensus as to the likelihood or otherwise of this origin theory, and some linguists reject it outright (see, for example, http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-say1.html). Rgrayuk (talk) 09:43, 18 December 2025 (UTC)