gent

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See also: Gent

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Short for gentleman.

Noun

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gent (plural gents)

  1. (colloquial) A gentleman.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English gent, from Old French gent, ultimately from Latin genitum (born).

Adjective

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gent (comparative more gent, superlative most gent)

  1. (obsolete) Noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful.
  2. (obsolete) neat; pretty; elegant

Etymology 3

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Noun

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gent (uncountable)

  1. (medicine, colloquial) Short for gentamicin.

Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old Catalan gent, from Latin gentem, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gent f (uncountable)

  1. people, folk
    bona gentgood people

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle Dutch gent, from Old Dutch *genit, variant of *ganut, from Proto-West Germanic *ganut, from Proto-Germanic *ganutaz.

Noun

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gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)

  1. (now rare) gander, male goose
    Synonyms: mannetjesgans, ganzerik, gander
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Back-formation from jan-van-gent.

Noun

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gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)

  1. (taxonomy) bird of the Sulidae family
    De genten vormen een familie in de orde der Suliformes.The Sulidae constitute a family in the Suliformes order.

French

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gent f (plural gens)

  1. (archaic) people, nation
    gent fémininewomen, womankind
    gent masculinemen
    gent mercantilemerchants
    gent moutonnièresheep (people who blindly follow others)
  2. (archaic) race, species (of animals)
    gent aviairebirds
    gent caninecanines
    gent félinefelines
    gent marécageuseamphibians, marsh-dwellers
    gent trotte-menurodents
    gent volaillepoultry
  3. (archaic) tribe
  4. company, those who are in accompaniment

Adjective

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

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

Further reading

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Middle Dutch

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Etymology

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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

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gent ?

  1. Ghent (a city in modern Belgium)

Inflection

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This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

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  • Dutch: Gent

References

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  1. ^ Room, Adrian, Place Names of the World, 2nd ed., McFarland & Co., 2006, p. 144
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “Ghent”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

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  • ghent”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000

Middle English

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gent

  1. noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful

Old French

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (early) /ˈd͡ʒɛ̃nt/
  • IPA(key): (late) /ˈʒãnt/

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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

  1. people, population
    la Franceise gent - the French people
Descendants
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  • French: gens m pl
  • Norman: gens m pl
  • Walloon: djin m pl

Etymology 2

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From Latin genitus (begotten), perfect passive participle of gignō.

Adjective

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gent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)

  1. fair, beautiful, handsome
  2. brave and beautiful
  3. polite
    Synonym: gentil
Usage notes
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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
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Swedish

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Adjective

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gent

  1. indefinite neuter singular of gen

Yola

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Noun

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gent

  1. Alternative form of geint

References

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  • 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