Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
gentleman. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
gentleman, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
gentleman in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
gentleman you have here. The definition of the word
gentleman will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
gentleman, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle + man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.
Pronunciation
Noun
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: 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, […]
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
- 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.
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
Translations
man of breeding
- Afrikaans: heer (af)
- Arabic: جِنْتِلْمَان m (jentilmān), شَهْم (ar) m (šahm), مُؤَدَّب m (muʔaddab), مُهَذَّب m (muhaḏḏab)
- Armenian: ջենտլմեն (hy) (ǰentlmen)
- Bulgarian: благородник (bg) m (blagorodnik)
- Catalan: cavaller (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 紳士/绅士 (zh) (shēnshì)
- Dutch: heer (nl) m
- Esperanto: ĝentlemano
- Estonian: härra
- Finnish: herrasmies (fi)
- French: gentilhomme (fr) m
- Georgian: ჯენტლმენი (ka) (ǯenṭlmeni)
- German: Herr (de)
- Greek: κύριος (el) m (kýrios), ευπατρίδης (el) m (efpatrídis)
- Hebrew: גְּבִיר (he) m (gvir)
- Icelandic: herra (is) m
- Italian: gentiluomo (it) m, galantuomo (it) m
- Japanese: 紳士 (ja) (しんし, shinshi), ジェントルマン (jentoruman), ゼントルマン (zentoruman)
- Khmer: បុរសសង្ហា (bŏrsâsngha), បុរសសមសួន (bŏrsâsmôsuŏn), បុរស (km) (borɑh)
- Korean: 신사 (ko) (sinsa), 젠틀맨 (jenteulmaen)
- Kurdish:
- Northern Kurdish: hêja (ku), rêzdar (ku), birêz (ku), mamoste (ku), seyda (ku), efendî (ku)
- Macedonian: господин m (gospodin)
- Maori: tangata mārire
- Persian: جنتلمن (fa) (jentelman), لودی (ludi) (archaic)
- Polish: dżentelmen (pl) m
- Portuguese: fidalgo (pt) m, nobre (pt) m or f, gentil-homem (pt) m
- Romani: raj m
- Russian: дже́нтльмен (ru) (džéntlʹmen), джентльме́н (ru) (džentlʹmén)
- Scottish Gaelic: duine-uasal m
- Serbo-Croatian: gospodin (sh) m
- Sicilian: galantòminu m
- Spanish: caballero (es) m
- Swedish: herre (sv) c
- Tagalog: ginoo (tl)
|
well-mannered, or charming man
- Arabic: اَلسَّيِّد m (as-sayyid), سَيِّد m (sayyid), أَفَنْدِي m (ʔafandī), خَوَاجَا m (ḵawājā)
- Armenian: պարոն (hy) (paron)
- Belarusian: спада́р (be) m (spadár), пан m (pan)
- Bengali: ভদ্রলোক (bn) (bhodrolōk), সাহেব (bn) (śaheb), মিঞা (bn) (mĩa), বাবু (bn) (babu)
- Bulgarian: господи́н (bg) m (gospodín)
- Catalan: cavaller (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 先生 (zh) (xiānsheng)
- Czech: pan (cs) m, pán (cs) m
- Danish: gentleman (da) c
- Dutch: meneer (nl) m
- Finnish: herrasmies (fi)
- French: monsieur (fr) m
- Galician: cabaleiro (gl) m
- Georgian: პატივცემული (ṗaṭivcemuli), ბატონი (baṭoni), დიდებული (ka) (didebuli)
- German: Herr (de) m
- Greek: κύριος (el) m (kýrios)
- Hungarian: úriember (hu), úr (hu)
- Icelandic: herramaður m, herra (is) m, aðalsmaður (is) m, heiðursmaður m, ljúfmenni (is) m, prúðmenni m, valmenni m
- Italian: gentiluomo (it) m, galantuomo (it) m, signore (it) m,
- Japanese: (usually omitted), 先生 (ja) (せんせい, sensei) (addressing teachers, doctors, etc.), お客様 (ja) (おきゃくさま, o-kyaku-sama) (to customers, guests), だんな (ja) (danna)
- Khmer: លោក (km) (look), អ្នកប្រុស (ʼnɑkproh)
- Kurdish:
- Northern Kurdish: hêja (ku), rêzdar (ku), birêz (ku), mamoste (ku), seyda (ku), efendî (ku)
- Macedonian: господин m (gospodin)
- Maori: tangata hūmārie
- Polish: dżentelmen (pl) m, pan (pl) m
- Portuguese: senhor (pt) m, cavalheiro (pt) m
- Romanian: domn (ro) m, gentleman (ro) m
- Russian: господи́н (ru) m (gospodín), (obsolete) су́дарь (ru) m (súdarʹ), уважа́емый (ru) m (uvažájemyj)
- Scottish Gaelic: duine-uasal m
- Serbo-Croatian: gospodin (sh) m
- Sicilian: don m
- Spanish: caballero (es) m
- Swedish: gentleman (sv) c, herre (sv) c
- Ukrainian: пан (uk) m (pan)
|
toilets intended for use by men
Chinese
Etymology
From English gentleman.
Pronunciation
Adjective
gentleman
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) gentlemanlike
See also
Chinese Pidgin English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From English gentleman.
Noun
gentleman
- A respectful term for a person of either sex: gentleman, lady
1862, 唐景星 [Tong King-sing], 英語集全, volume 6, marginalia, page 39; republished as “Pidgin English texts from the Chinese English Instructor”, in Michelle Li, Stephen Matthews and Geoff P. Smith, editor, Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics, volume 10, number 1, 2005, pages 79-167:
- 希郎温毡地文'託其
*hi1 long4 wan1 zhin1[zhen1] di6 man4 tok3 ki4
He long one gentleman talkee.
He is talking with a gentleman.
References
- 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
Etymology
Borrowed from English gentleman.
Pronunciation
Noun
gentleman m (plural gentlemen or gentlemans)
- gentleman, especially an anglophone one
Further reading
Anagrams
Romanian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English gentleman.
Noun
gentleman m (plural gentlemeni)
- gentleman
Declension
Spanish
Noun
gentleman m (plural gentlemen)
- British gentleman
Further reading
Yola
Etymology
From Middle English gentilman.
Pronunciation
Noun
gentleman
- gentleman
1867, “DR. RUSSELL ON THE INHABITANTS AND DIALECT OF THE BARONY OF FORTH”, in APPENDIX:Gentleman Broune,- Gentleman Browne.
References
- Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 126