gentleman
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle + man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/
- (General American) IPA(key): [ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Hyphenation: gentle‧man
- Homophone: gentlemen
Noun
[edit]gentleman (plural gentlemen)
- (chiefly historical) A man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armiferous man ranking below a knight.
- Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:
- And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d:
And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes,
Share equally the gold that bought their liues,
And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]
- 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
- But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,
VVho was then a Gentleman?
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- “ […] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.
- Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.
- 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
- As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, […]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. […] I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
- 2011, Mike Pappas, Growing Up the Greek Way in the Big Apple, page 103:
- She wanted to go see a movie called Gigi, which I was not too thrilled about. But being a gentleman, I bit my tongue and said, “Okay.”
- (derogatory) An effeminate or oversophisticated man.
- Synonyms: cockney, puss-gentleman, sissy; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man
- Well, la-di-da, aren't you just a proper gentleman?
- (polite term of address) Any man.
- Synonym: sahib
- Coordinate terms: lady, gentlewoman, (historical) gentlelady
- Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room.
- (usually historical, sometimes derogatory) An amateur or dabbler in any field, particularly those of independent means.
- Synonym: dilettante
- 2004, Mary N. Woods, “The First Professional: Benjamin Henry Latrobe”, in Keith L. Eggener, editor, American Architectural History: A Contemporary Reader, electronic edition, Routledge, →ISBN, page 119:
- Latrobe had extensive dealings with Jefferson, the most prominent gentleman-architect in the United States.
- (cricket) An amateur player, particularly one whose wealth permits him to forego payment.
- Coordinate terms: professional, (historical) player
Usage notes
[edit]- Although gentleman is used in reference to a man and gentlemen is used as a polite form of address to a group of men, it is more common to directly address a single gentleman as sir.
- The singular possesive of the sense "any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man" can appear in ad hoc compounds to describe a polite way of doing something; e.g. a "gentleman's sweep" when a dominant basketball team allowed the opponent one win in a series[1].
Derived terms
[edit]- April gentleman
- country gentleman
- first gentleman
- gent
- gentleman about town
- gentleman and scholar
- gentleman-at-arms
- gentleman-commoner
- gentleman cow
- gentleman farmer
- gentleman-in-waiting
- Gentleman Jim
- gentlemanliness
- gentlemanly
- gentleman of leisure
- gentleman of the back door
- gentleman's bet
- gentleman's C
- gentleman scientist
- gentleman's gentleman
- gentleman usher
- gentlemen's agreement
- gentlemen's club
- gentlemen's room
- ladies and gentlemen
- old gentleman
- put the beggar on the gentleman
- scholar and gentleman
- second gentleman
- temporary gentleman
- time gentlemen please
- walking gentleman
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Chinese Pidgin English: gentleman
- → Danish: gentleman
- → Esperanto: ĝentlemano
- → French: gentleman
- → Russian: джентльмен (džentlʹmen)
- → Mohegan-Pequot: gundermon
- → Polish: dżentelmen
- → Portuguese: gentleman
- → Spanish: gentleman
- → Yiddish: דזשענטעלמען (dzhentelmen)
Translations
[edit]man of breeding
|
well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man
|
pejorative: effeminate or oversophisticated man
|
polite form of address to a man
|
amateur or dabbler in any field
|
cricket: amateur player
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Chinese
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]gentleman
See also
[edit]Chinese Pidgin English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- 毡地文 (Chinese spelling)
Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]gentleman
- A respectful term for a person of either sex: gentleman, lady
- 1862, 唐景星 [Tong King-sing], 英語集全 [Chinese English Instructor], volume VI, marginalia, page 39; republished as “Pidgin English texts from the Chinese English Instructor”, in Michelle Li, Stephen Matthews, Geoff P. Smith, editors, Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics[2], volume 10, number 1, 2005, pages 79-167:
- 希郎温毡[sic – meaning ⿰口毡]地文'託其
*hi1 long4 wan1 zhin1[zhen1] di6 man4 tok3 ki4
He long one gentleman talkee.
He is talking with a gentleman.
- 希郎温毡[sic – meaning ⿰口毡]地文'託其
References
[edit]- Gow, W. S. P. (1924) Gow’s Guide to Shanghai, 1924: A Complete, Concise and Accurate Handbook of the City and District, Especially Compiled for the Use of Tourists and Commercial Visitors to the Far East, Shanghai, page 105: “Gentleman: does not always indicate the male sex. e.g. “outside have got two piece gentleman, one belong missee.” (Lunde.)”
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from English gentleman.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]gentleman m (plural gentlemen or gentlemans)
- gentleman, especially an anglophone one
Further reading
[edit]- “gentleman”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
[edit]Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English gentleman.
Noun
[edit]gentleman m (plural gentlemeni)
Declension
[edit]Declension of gentleman
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) gentleman | gentlemanul | (niște) gentlemeni | gentlemenii |
genitive/dative | (unui) gentleman | gentlemanului | (unor) gentlemeni | gentlemenilor |
vocative | gentlemanule | gentlemenilor |
Spanish
[edit]Noun
[edit]gentleman m (plural gentlemen)
- British gentleman
Further reading
[edit]- “gentleman”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Swedish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from English gentleman.
Noun
[edit]gentleman c
- a gentleman (refined, well-mannered man)
- Synonym: (plural, humorous) hängslemän
- en äkta gentleman
- a real gentleman
Declension
[edit]Declension of gentleman | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | gentleman | gentlemannen | gentlemän | gentlemännen |
Genitive | gentlemans | gentlemannens | gentlemäns | gentlemännens |
Derived terms
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]- gentleman in Svensk ordbok (SO)
- gentleman in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
- gentleman in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
Yola
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English gentilman.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]gentleman
- gentleman
- 1867, “DR. RUSSELL ON THE INHABITANTS AND DIALECT OF THE BARONY OF FORTH”, in APPENDIX:
- Gentleman Broune,
- Gentleman Browne.
References
[edit]- 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 126
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