(Internet, qualifier:youth slang) Old; no longer versed in or relevant to current youth culture.
What the heck is an unc game? It didn’t take me long to discover that “unc” (short for uncle) is the latest semi-disparaging gen Z name for anyone over about 30. Further back, it originated as AAVE slang. “Uncslop” refers to the implicitly terrible games beloved by this older generation of players; basically anything made in the 1990s or 2000s, from Knights of the Old Republic to World of Warcraft. An unc game, then, is a game predominantly played by millennials (and older) – and Marathon is one of them. A week or so later, I read Emanuel Maiberg’s article for 404 Media, which dug into the game’s unc credentials. [2026 April 15, Keza MacDonald, The Guardian, archived from the original on 17 Apr 2026:
Those qualities make it more accessible to a range of people who struggle to keep up in faster games while maintaining a skill range in other disciplines: timing, positioning, and perception. It's fairly easy to track targets, but you're still rewarded for nailing headshots, taking the high ground, and utilizing shell abilities. Does that make Marathon an unc game? You decide, but as a freshly minted literal uncle, it does speak to me. 2026 March 24, Morgan Park, “Marathon review”, in PC Gamer, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2026:
Millennials’ very existence has become so embarrassing to Gen Z-ers that they’ve coined a phrase for it: “millennial cringe.” […] We are now unc and frequently also washed. 2025 December 22, Anna Silman, “This Is the Year Millennials Officially Got Old”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2025:
Then Pangborn would find him and ask him what he thought he was doing here. He would ask if Ace had a job. He didn't, and he couldn't even claim he had come back to visit his unc, because Pop had been in his junkshop when the place burned down. 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
(Internet, broadly) An older male relative. ▸ Any older man, especially middle-aged.
Yo, TikTok, we need to raise money for Unc. 2024 March 11, Kyle Swenson, Amber Ferguson, “A TikToker raised $400K for an unhoused man. Then things got messy.”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2024:
Now he’s [Hasan Piker] thirty-three—so old, in streamer years, that his fans call him “unc.” 2025 March 17, Andrew Marantz, “The Battle for the Bros”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2025:
A phenotype of Caenorhabditis elegans that moves in an uncoordinated manner.
The most intriging mutated gene is called an "unc" gene for uncoordinated. In this mutant, the modified gene is expressed as an alteration of the muscle tissue. The worm does not move in the typical nematode fashion. Insights concerning the modified mechanism in these "unc" worms may provide insight into such diseases as muscular dystrophy. 1999, Aloi, Jane Elizabeth, Student study guide to accompany general zoology:
The Bristol chromosome I was marked with mutations in two widely spaced genes, dpy-5 (e61 ) and unc-54 (el 90). A strain homozygous for these markers is dumpy and uncoordinated. 1979, David Hirsh et al., Eucaryotic gene regulation:
Unc animals do not move in the normal sinusoidal pattern of wildtype animals. 2006, Caldwell, Guy A, Integrated genomics : a discovery-based laboratory course, page 207:
Mutations in the lon-2 gene result in worms that are unusually long (Lon), while mutations in the unc-78 gene result in worms that are uncoordinated (Unc). 2017, Meneely, Philip Mark, author, Genetics : genes, genomes, and evolution: