gent
English
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editShort for gentleman.
Noun
editgent (plural gents)
- (colloquial) A gentleman.
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editEtymology 2
editFrom Middle English gent, from Old French gent, ultimately from Latin genitum (“born”).
Adjective
editgent (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 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
editNoun
editgent (uncountable)
- (medicine, colloquial) Short for gentamicin.
Anagrams
editCatalan
editEtymology
editInherited from Old Catalan gent, from Latin gentem, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editgent f (uncountable)
Derived terms
editFurther reading
edit- “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.
Dutch
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editFrom Middle Dutch gent, from Old Dutch *genit, variant of *ganut, from Proto-West Germanic *ganut, from Proto-Germanic *ganutaz.
Noun
editgent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)
Derived terms
editEtymology 2
editBack-formation from jan-van-gent.
Noun
editgent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)
French
editEtymology
editInherited from Old French gent, from Latin gentem. Cf. gens.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editgent f (plural gens)
- (archaic) people, nation
- gent féminine ― women, womankind
- gent masculine ― men
- gent mercantile ― merchants
- gent moutonnière ― sheep (people who blindly follow others)
- (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
- (archaic) tribe
- company, those who are in accompaniment
Adjective
editgent (feminine gente, masculine plural gents, feminine plural gentes)
Further reading
edit- “gent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle Dutch
editEtymology
editFrom 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
editgent ?
Inflection
editThis noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants
edit- Dutch: Gent
References
edit- ^ 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
edit- “ghent”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
Middle English
editgent
- 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
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editFrom Latin gentem, accusative singular of gēns. The nominative singular descends from a regularized form: oblique stem gent- and 3rd declension nominative -is.
Noun
editgent 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
editEtymology 2
editFrom Latin genitus (“begotten”), perfect passive participle of gignō.
Adjective
editgent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)
Usage notes
editThe 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
editCase | masculine | feminine | neuter | |
---|---|---|---|---|
singular | subject | gens | gente | gent |
oblique | gent | |||
plural | subject | gent | gentes | |
oblique | gens |
Related terms
editSwedish
editAdjective
editgent
Yola
editNoun
editgent
- Alternative form of geint
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 41
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