different between gentle vs gent

English

Etymology

From Middle English gentil (“courteous, noble”), from Old French gentil (“high-born, noble”), from Latin gentilis (“of the same family or clan”), from gens (“[Roman] clan”). Doublet of gentile and genteel.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d??ntl?/
• (General American) enPR: j?n?tl, IPA^(key): /?d??ntl?/, [?d??????l?]
• Hyphenation: gen?tle

Adjective

gentle (comparative gentler or more gentle, superlative gentlest or most gentle)

1. Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition.

2. Soft and mild rather than hard or severe.

3. Docile and easily managed.

   a gentle horse

4. Gradual rather than steep or sudden.

5. Polite and respectful rather than rude.

6. (archaic) Well-born; of a good family or respectable birth, though not noble.
   • 1823, Walter Scott, Peveril of the Peak

     "You are of gentle blood," she said […]

   • 1893-1897, Charles Kendal Adams (editor), Johnsons Universal Encyclopedia

     British society is divided into nobility, gentry, and yeomanry, and families are either noble, gentle, or simple.

Synonyms

• (polite): friendly, kind, polite, respectful

Antonyms

• (polite): rude

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gentle (third-person singular simple present gentles, present participle gentling, simple past and past participle gentled)

1. (intransitive) to become gentle
   • 2013, Kathryn L.M. Reynolds, Garland Roses, Kathryn L.M. Reynolds (?ISBN), page 226

     “She's experienced a horrific and nasty scare and is in a state of shock, but otherwise she's relatively okay.” Conrad replied, his tone at first grim (as he recalled what he'd seen in the family room) and then it gentled to a more doctorial tone as he directed his next comments to his patient.

2. (transitive, obsolete) to ennoble
   • c. 1599, Henry V, by Shakespeare, Act IV Scene III

     […] For he to-day that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, / This day shall gentle his condition […]

3. (transitive, animal husbandry) to break; to tame; to domesticate
   • 2008, Frank Leslie, The Killing Breed, Penguin (?ISBN)

     Yakima could have tried to catch him, gentle him as Wolf had been gentled, but having two stallions in his cavvy would lead to a different kind of trouble.

4. (transitive) To soothe; to calm; to make gentle.
   • 1996, William C. Loring, An American Romantic-realist Abroad: Templeton Strong and His Music, Scarecrow Press (?ISBN), page 201

     A hornist, his playing gentled by perspective, is out of sight within the woods, but his notes are heard through or over the murmuring mix of bird song and breeze in leaves.

Noun

gentle (plural gentles)

1. (archaic) A person of high birth.
   • 2012, Lizzie Stark, Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games, Chicago Review Press (?ISBN), page 43:

     While actual medieval societies were full of lots of peasants and a few rich and noble gentles, SCA personas tend to be nobles rather than commoners.

2. (fishing) A maggot used as bait by anglers.
3. A trained falcon, or falcon-gentil.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt

Etymology 1

Short for gentleman.

Noun

gent (plural gents)

1. (colloquial) A gentleman.

Related terms

• genteel
• gentile
• gentle

Etymology 2

From Old French gent, ultimately from Latin genitum (“born”).

Adjective

gent (comparative more gent, superlative most gent)

1. (obsolete) Noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful.

   • A knyght [who] was fair and gent.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ix:

     He lou'd, as was his lot, a Ladie gent, / That him againe lou'd in the least degree [...].

2. (obsolete) neat; pretty; elegant

   • Her body gent and small.

Etymology 3

Noun

gent (uncountable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Short for gentamicin.

Anagrams

• Teng

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin gentem, accusative of g?ns, from Proto-Indo-European *?énh?tis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /??ent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /??en/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?d??ent/
• Rhymes: -ent

Noun

gent f (uncountable)

1. people, folk

Derived terms

• gentada
• gentalla
• genteta

Further reading

• “gent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “gent” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “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.

French

Etymology

From Old French gent, from Latin gens, gentem. Cf. gens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/

Noun

gent f (plural gents or gens)

1. (obsolete) people, nation
2. (obsolete) tribe
3. company, those who are in accompaniment

Adjective

gent (feminine singular gente, masculine plural gents, feminine plural gentes)

1. (obsolete or humorous) nice, pleasant, or noble, speaking of a person or thing

Further reading

• “gent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From earlier Ganda; if from Celtic, possibly from Proto-Celtic *kom-dati (“confluence”), from Proto-Indo-European *kom-d?h?-ti- (“confluence”), equivalent to *?óm + *d?eh?- (similar to the town Condivincum); or related to the Celtic goddess Gontia. The name could otherwise be of non-Indo-European origin.

Noun

gent ?

1. Ghent (a city in modern Belgium)

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: Gent

References

Further reading

• “ghent”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000

Old French

Pronunciation

• (early) IPA^(key): /?d?ent/
• (by 13th century) IPA^(key): /?d?ant/
• (Late Old French) IPA^(key): /??ant/
• Rhymes: -ant

Etymology 1

From Latin gentem, accusative singular of g?ns. The nominative singular descends from a regularized form: oblique stem gent- and 3rd declension nominative -is.

Noun

gent f (oblique plural genz or gentz, nominative singular gent, nominative plural genz or gentz)

1. people, population

   la Franceise gent - the French people

Descendants

• French: gens
• Norman: gens
• Walloon: djin

Etymology 2

From Latin genitus (“begotten”), perfect passive participle of gign?.

Adjective

gent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)

1. fair, beautiful, handsome
2. brave and beautiful
3. polite

   Synonym: gentil

Usage notes

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

Related terms

• gençor (comparative), also spelled gensor

Swedish

Adjective

gent

1. absolute indefinite neuter form of gen.

Yola

Noun

gent

1. Alternative form of geint