gentleman

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See also: Gentleman and gentlemän

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle +‎ man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.

Pronunciation

Noun

gentleman (plural gentlemen)

  1. (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, […]
    • 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 B 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.
  2. 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 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.”
  3. (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?
  4. (polite term of address) Any man.
    Synonym: sahib
    Coordinate terms: lady, gentlewoman, (historical) gentlelady
    Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room.
  5. (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.
  6. (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

Descendants

Translations

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Translations to be checked

Chinese

Etymology

From English gentleman.

Pronunciation

Adjective

gentleman

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) gentlemanlike

See also

Chinese Pidgin English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From English gentleman.

Noun

gentleman

  1. 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, 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)

  1. gentleman, especially an anglophone one

Further reading

Anagrams

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English gentleman.

Noun

gentleman m (plural gentlemeni)

  1. gentleman

Declension

singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative gentleman gentlemanul gentlemeni gentlemenii
genitive-dative gentleman gentlemanului gentlemeni gentlemenilor
vocative gentlemanule gentlemenilor

Spanish

Noun

gentleman m (plural gentlémanes)

  1. British gentleman

Further reading

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Etymology

Borrowed from English gentleman.

Noun

gentleman c

  1. a gentleman (refined, well-mannered man)
    Synonym: (plural, humorous) hängslemän
    en äkta gentleman
    a real gentleman

Declension

Declension of gentleman
nominative genitive
singular indefinite gentleman gentlemans
definite gentlemannen gentlemannens
plural indefinite gentlemän gentlemäns
definite gentlemännen gentlemännens

Derived terms

See also

References

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English gentilman.

Pronunciation

Noun

gentleman

  1. gentleman
    • 1867, “DR. RUSSELL ON THE INHABITANTS AND DIALECT OF THE BARONY OF FORTH”, in APPENDIX:
      Gentleman Broune,
      Gentleman Browne.

References

  • 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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