ungenteel

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ genteel.

Adjective

ungenteel (comparative more ungenteel, superlative most ungenteel)

1. Not genteel; coarse and ill-mannered.
   • 1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress,^[1]

     He was a jolly, handsome fellow, as any woman need wish for a companion; tall and well made; rather a little too large, but not so as to be ungenteel; he danced well, which I think was the first thing that brought us together.

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 15,^[2]

     “Well, it would serve to cure him of an absurd practice of never asking a question at an inn, which he had adopted, when quite a young man, on the principal of its being very ungenteel to be curious. […] ”

   • 1845, Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the Second,^[3]

     If I might be allowed to mention a young lady’s legs on any terms, I would observe of Miss Slowboy’s that there was a fatality about them which rendered them singularly liable to be grazed; and that she never effected the smallest ascent or descent without recording the circumstance upon them with a notch, as Robinson Crusoe marked the days upon his wooden calendar. But, as this might be considered ungenteel, I’ll think of it.

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 57,^[4]

     But we are not going to leave these two people long in such a low and ungenteel station of life. Better days, as far as worldly prosperity went, were in store for both.

Derived terms

• ungenteelly

Translations

not genteel

• Scottish Gaelic: mì-cheanalta, mì-eireachdail, mì-innealta, mì-uasal
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