gent
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Short for gentleman.
Noun
gent (plural gents)
- (colloquial) A gentleman.
Derived terms
Related terms
Etymology 2
From Middle English gent, from Old French gent, ultimately from Latin genitum (“born”).
Adjective
gent (comparative more gent, superlative most gent)
- (obsolete) Noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- He lou'd, as was his lot, a Ladie gent, / That him againe lou'd in the least degree […]
- (obsolete) neat; pretty; elegant
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Myllers Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:
- Her body gent and small.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Etymology 3
Noun
gent (uncountable)
- (medicine, colloquial) Short for gentamicin.
Anagrams
Catalan
Etymology
From Old Catalan gent, from Latin gēns, gentis, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis.
Pronunciation
Noun
gent f (uncountable)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “gent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “gent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
- “gent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “gent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
French
Etymology
From Old French gent, from Latin gens, gentem. Cf. gens.
Pronunciation
Noun
gent f (plural gens)
- (obsolete) people, nation
- gent aviaire
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent canine
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent féline
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent féminine
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent masculine
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent marécageuse
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent mercantile
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent moutonnière
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent trotte-menu
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- gent volaille
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- (obsolete) tribe
- company, those who are in accompaniment
Adjective
gent (feminine gente, masculine plural gents, feminine plural gentes)
Further reading
- “gent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle Dutch
Etymology
From earlier Ganda; if from Celtic, possibly from Proto-Celtic *kom-dati (“confluence”), from Proto-Indo-European *kom-dʰh₁-ti- (“confluence”), equivalent to *ḱóm + *dʰeh₁- (similar to the town Condivincum); or related to the Celtic goddess Gontia.[1] The name could otherwise be of non-Indo-European origin.[2]
Noun
gent ?
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants
- Dutch: Gent
References
- ^ Room, Adrian, Place Names of the World, 2nd ed., McFarland & Co., 2006, p. 144
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “Ghent”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading
- “ghent”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
Middle English
gent
- noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Ryme of Syr Thopas”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:
- Al of a knight was fayre & gent
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Old French
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Latin gentem, accusative singular of gēns. The nominative singular descends from a regularized form: oblique stem gent- and 3rd declension nominative -is.
Noun
gent oblique singular, f (oblique plural genz or gentz, nominative singular gent, nominative plural genz or gentz)
- people, population
- la Franceise gent - the French people
Descendants
Etymology 2
From Latin genitus (“begotten”), perfect passive participle of gignō.
Adjective
gent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)
Usage notes
The Dictionnaire Étymologique de l'Ancien Français points out the difficulty of translating this word into modern languages. The adjective describes an ideal person in a given context: brave warriors in chansons de geste, loyal good men in tales of courtly love, polite people in all occasions, who are always handsome or beautiful. It also notes the meaning 'well-born, aristocratic', mentioned in some dictionaries of Old French, is extremely rarely attested.
Declension
Related terms
Swedish
Adjective
gent
Yola
Noun
gent
- Alternative form of geint
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 41
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