gent

See also: Gent

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɛnt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Homophone: djent

Etymology 1

Short for gentleman.

Noun

gent (plural gents)

1. (colloquial) A gentleman.

Derived terms

• city gent
• ladies and gents

Related terms

• genteel
• gentile
• gentle

Etymology 2

From Middle English gent, from Old French gent, ultimately from Latin genitum (“born”).

Adjective

gent (comparative more gent, superlative most gent)

1. (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 […]

2. (obsolete) neat; pretty; elegant
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Miller’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. […], 2nd edition, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: James Nichol; London: James Nisbet & Co.; Dublin: W. Robertson, 1860, →OCLC:

     Her body gent and small.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Etymology 3

Noun

gent (uncountable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Clipping of gentamicin.

Anagrams

• Teng

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Old Catalan gent, from Latin gentem, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈʒen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈʒent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈd͡ʒent]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ent

Noun

gent f (uncountable)

1. people, folk

   bona gent ― good people

Derived terms

• gentada
• gentalla
• genteta

Further reading

• “gent”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “gent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “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.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɣɛnt/

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch gent, from Old Dutch *genit, variant of *ganut, from Proto-West Germanic *ganut, from Proto-Germanic *ganutaz.

Noun

gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)

1. (now rare) gander, male goose

   Synonyms: mannetjesgans, ganzerik, gander

Derived terms

• jan-van-gent

Etymology 2

Back-formation from jan-van-gent.

Noun

gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)

1. (taxonomy) bird of the Sulidae family

   De genten vormen een familie in de orde der Suliformes. ― The Sulidae constitute a family in the Suliformes order.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French gent, from Latin gentem. Cf. gens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒɑ̃/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

gent f (plural gens)

1. (archaic) people, nation

   gent féminine ― women, womankind

   gent masculine ― men

   gent mercantile ― merchants

   gent moutonnière ― sheep (people who blindly follow others)

2. (archaic) race, species (of animals)

   gent aviaire ― birds

   gent canine ― canines

   gent féline ― felines

   gent marécageuse ― amphibians, marsh-dwellers

   gent trotte-menu ― rodents

   gent volaille ― poultry

3. (archaic) tribe
4. company, those who are in accompaniment

Adjective

gent (feminine gente, masculine plural gents, feminine plural gentes)

1. (archaic or humorous) nice, pleasant, or noble, speaking of a person or thing

Further reading

• “gent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Adjective

gent

1. 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

• IPA^(key): (early) /ˈd͡ʒɛ̃nt/
• IPA^(key): (late) /ˈʒãnt/

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.

Alternative forms

• jant, גֿאנט (ǧʔnt /⁠jant⁠/) (Judeo-French)

Noun

gent oblique singular, f (oblique plural genz or gentz, nominative singular gent, nominative plural genz or gentz)

1. people, population

   la Franceise gent - the French people

Descendants

• French: gens m pl
• Norman: gens m pl
• Walloon: djin m pl

Etymology 2

From Latin genitus (“begotten”), perfect passive participle of gignō.

Adjective

gent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)

1. fair, beautiful, handsome
2. brave and beautiful
3. polite

   Synonym: gentil

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

	Case	masculine	feminine	neuter
singular	subject	gens	gente	gent
	oblique	gent			gente	gent
plural	subject	gent	gentes		gent
	oblique	gens			gentes	gent

Related terms

• gençor (comparative), also spelled gensor

Swedish

Adjective

gent

1. indefinite neuter singular of gen

Yola

Noun

gent

1. 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