How to Say "Great Uncle" in Italian

prozio

The English phrase 'great uncle' is prozio in Italian.

prozio is used to refer to the brother of one's grandparent.

What does it mean word for word?

The word is formed from the prefix pro- (meaning 'great' or 'ancestor' in this genealogical context) and zio (meaning 'uncle').

The plural form of prozio is prozi.

The word prozio is derived from the Ancient Greek word prôtos, which means 'first'.
In Italian, the prefix pro- can be repeated indefinitely to describe ancestors of any distance, such as proproprozio for a great-great-great-uncle.
In some Italian dialects and informal family contexts, people might bypass the formal prozio and simply use zio to address the relative, treating the generation gap with more familiarity.

Per rivendicare la cospicua eredità che il tuo lontano prozio ti ha lasciato nel suo testamento, sono felice di informarti che tutto ciò che devi fare è effettuare un bonifico bancario di $500 una tantum sul seguente conto.
In order to claim the sizable inheritance that your distant great uncle left you in his will, I'm happy to inform you that all you have to do is make a one-time, $500 bank transfer to the following account.
This sentence is useful for seeing how to use prozio when discussing a distant relative and an inheritance.
Tatoeba #10502637 by Guybrush88, translation #10166240 by ddnktr
Mio prozio vive in un piccolo paese.
My great uncle lives in a small village.
Ho ricevuto una lettera dal mio prozio.
I received a letter from my great uncle.
5 more sentences on Tatoeba

Chiara and Francesco are looking at old family photos.

Chiara

Chi è questo uomo con la barba?
Who is this man with the beard?
Francesco

È il mio prozio, il fratello di mio nonno.
He is my great uncle, my grandfather's brother.
Chiara

Sembra un uomo molto simpatico.
He looks like a very nice man.
Francesco

Sì, era davvero divertente.
Yes, he was really funny.

Sources

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