Dictionary

agony aunt en · NOUN

Etymology

From the much earlier British term agony column, initially used for personal columns and then for advice columns, and the informal use of aunt for any older female fictive kin.

Meanings

1. (Ireland, UK, informal) Synonym of advice columnist, a writer of an advice column in a newspaper or other periodical, especially an actually or assumed female writer of such a column.
   • Yes, I have an agony aunt for a wife and an uncle for an employer. I'm well looked after. 1999 February 3, Anthony Horowitz, “Strangler's Wood”, in Midsomer Murders:
   • You should write in to the agony aunt; she'll sort it out for you.
   • Pandora has just left my bedroom. I am just about devastated with frustration. I can't go on like this. I have written to Aunt Clara, the Agony Aunt. 1984, Sue Townsend, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Methuen, →ISBN, page 20:
   • The big difference between agony aunts then and today is that now we have the internet to answer those tricky problems about how to eat an avocado pear (a lot of letters in the 70s were avocado-related)[…] 2021 June 20, Philippa Perry, “Ask Philippa: meet the Observer’s brilliant new agony aunt”, in The Observer:
2. (Ireland, UK, informal) Someone commonly consulted for advice about personal problems.
   • I'm sick of everyone coming to me with their problems—I never wanted to be an agony aunt!

Forms

Coordinates

agony uncle

Synonyms

advice columnist

Translations (5)

cmn 垃圾桶 (someone consulted for advice about personal problems) · pl redaktor rubryki porad osobistych (someone consulted for advice about personal problems) · nb Klara Klok (someone consulted for advice about personal problems) · fi leelian lepotuoli (someone consulted for advice about personal problems) · pl redaktorka rubryki porad osobistych (someone consulted for advice about personal problems)