gentleman

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Hyphenation: gentle‧man
• Homophone: gentlemen

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: […] [R. Robinson for] 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[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.

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[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.”

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

• 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[1].

• gentlewoman
• gentlelady

• Chinese Pidgin English: gentleman
• → Danish: gentleman
• → Esperanto: ĝentlemano
• → French: gentleman
• → Russian: джентльмен (džentlʹmen)
  • → Armenian: ջենտլմեն (ǰentlmen)
  • → Georgian: ჯენტლმენი (ǯenṭlmeni)
• → Mohegan-Pequot: gundermon
• → Polish: dżentelmen
• → Portuguese: gentleman
• → Spanish: gentleman
• → Yiddish: דזשענטעלמען (dzhentelmen)

From English gentleman.

gentleman

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) gentlemanlike

• man

• 毡地文 (Chinese spelling)

From English gentleman.

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^[2], volume 10, number 1, 2005, pages 79-167:

     希郎温毡^{[sic – meaning ⿰口毡]}地文'託其
     *hi¹ long⁴ wan¹ zhin¹[zhen¹] di⁶ man⁴ tok³ ki⁴
     He long one gentleman talkee.
     He is talking with a gentleman.

• 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.)”

Borrowed from English gentleman.

• IPA^(key): /dʒɛn.tlə.man/

• Audio:

  (file)

gentleman m (plural gentlemen or gentlemans)

1. gentleman, especially an anglophone one

• “gentleman”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• mélangent

Unadapted borrowing from English gentleman.

gentleman m (plural gentlemeni)

1. gentleman

gentleman m (plural gentlémanes)

1. British gentleman

• “gentleman”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28

Borrowed from English gentleman.

gentleman c

1. a gentleman (refined, well-mannered man)

   Synonym: (plural, humorous) hängslemän

   en äkta gentleman

   a real gentleman

• gentlemannamässig

• herre

• gentleman in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• gentleman in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• gentleman in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From Middle English gentilman.

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɛntlˈman/

gentleman

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

     Gentleman Broune,

     Gentleman Browne.

• 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