gent
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Short for gentleman.
Noun edit
gent (plural gents)
- (colloquial) A gentleman.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English gent, from Old French gent, ultimately from Latin genitum (“born”).
Adjective edit
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 Miller’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. […], 2nd edition, volumes (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 edit
Noun edit
gent (uncountable)
- (medicine, colloquial) Short for gentamicin.
Anagrams edit
Catalan edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Old Catalan gent, from Latin gentem, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis.
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): (Central) [ˈʒen]
- IPA(key): (Balearic) [ˈʒent]
- IPA(key): (Valencian) [ˈd͡ʒent]
- Rhymes: -ent
Noun edit
gent f (uncountable)
Derived terms edit
Further 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 edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle Dutch gent, from Old Dutch *genit, variant of *ganut, from Proto-West Germanic *ganut, from Proto-Germanic *ganutaz.
Noun edit
gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)
Derived terms edit
Etymology 2 edit
Back-formation from jan-van-gent.
Noun edit
gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Old French gent, from Latin gentem. Cf. gens.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
gent 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 edit
gent (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 edit
Etymology edit
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 edit
gent ?
Inflection edit
This 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 edit
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 edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Latin gentem, accusative singular of gēns. The nominative singular descends from a regularized form: oblique stem gent- and 3rd declension nominative -is.
Noun edit
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 edit
Etymology 2 edit
From Latin genitus (“begotten”), perfect passive participle of gignō.
Adjective edit
gent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)
Usage notes edit
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 edit
Related terms edit
Swedish edit
Adjective edit
gent
Yola edit
Noun edit
gent
- 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