# gent
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /d͡ʒɛnt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛnt
* Homophone: djent

### Etymology 1

Short for gentleman.

#### Noun

gent (plural gents)
* (colloquial) A gentleman.

##### Derived terms

* city gent
* ladies and gents

##### Related terms

* genteel
* gentile
* gentle

### Etymology 2

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

#### Adjective

gent (comparative more gent, superlative most gent)
* (obsolete) Noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:He lou'd, as was his lot, a Ladie gent, / That him againe lou'd in the least degree […]
* (obsolete) neat; pretty; elegant
** 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Miller’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. […], 2nd edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: James Nichol; London: James Nisbet & Co.; Dublin: W. Robertson, 1860, →OCLC:Her body gent and small.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

### Etymology 3
#### Noun

gent (uncountable)
* (medicine, colloquial) Short for gentamicin.

### Anagrams

* Teng

## Catalan
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central) [ˈʒen]
* IPA: (Balearic) [ˈʒent]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈd͡ʒent]
* Rhymes: -ent

### Noun

gent f (uncountable)
* people, folk
    bona gent ― good people

#### 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, 2024
* “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.

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɣɛnt/

### Etymology 1

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

#### Noun

gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)
* (now rare) gander, male goose
    Synonyms: mannetjesgans, ganzerik, gander

##### Derived terms

* jan-van-gent

### Etymology 2

Back-formation from jan-van-gent.

#### Noun

gent m (plural genten, diminutive gentje n)
* (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
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʒɑ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

gent f (plural gens)
* (archaic) people, nation
    gent féminine ― women, womankind
    gent masculine ― men
    gent mercantile ― merchants
    gent moutonnière ― sheep (people who blindly follow others)
* (archaic) race, species (of animals)
    gent aviaire ― birds
    gent canine ― canines
    gent féline ― felines
    gent marécageuse ― amphibians, marsh-dwellers
    gent trotte-menu ― rodents
    gent volaille ― poultry
* (archaic) tribe
* company, those who are in accompaniment

### Adjective

gent (feminine gente, masculine plural gents, feminine plural gentes)
* (archaic or humorous) nice, pleasant, or noble, speaking of a person or thing

### Further reading

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

## Middle Dutch
### Etymology

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. The name could otherwise be of non-Indo-European origin.

### Noun

gent ?
* Ghent (a city in modern Belgium)

#### Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

#### Descendants

* Dutch: Gent

### References

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

### Further reading

* “ghent”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000

## Middle English

gent
* noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful
** 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Ryme of Syr Thopas”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:Al of a knight was fayre & gent(please add an English translation of this quotation)

## Old French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: (early) /ˈd͡ʒɛ̃nt/
* IPA: (late) /ˈʒãnt/

### Etymology 1

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

#### Noun

gent oblique singular, f (oblique plural genz or gentz, nominative singular gent, nominative plural genz or gentz)
* people, population
    la Franceise gent - the French people

##### Descendants

* French: gens m pl
* Norman: gens m pl
* Walloon: djin m pl

### Etymology 2

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

#### Adjective

gent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular gente)
* fair, beautiful, handsome
* brave and beautiful
* 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

| Number | Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
| Singular | Subject | gens | gente | gent |
| Singular | Oblique | gent | gente | gent | gente | gent |
| Plural | Subject | gent | gentes | gent | gent |
| Plural | Oblique | gens | gentes | gent | gentes | gent |

##### Related terms

* gençor (comparative), also spelled gensor

## Swedish
### Adjective

gent
* indefinite neuter singular of gen

## Yola
### Noun

gent
* Alternative form of geint

### 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 41