# gentleman
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/
* (General American) IPA: [ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Hyphenation: gentle‧man
* Homophone: gentlemen

### Noun

gentleman (plural gentlemen)
* (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.
* 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.”
* (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?
* (polite term of address) Any man.
    Synonym: sahib
    Coordinate terms: lady, gentlewoman, (historical) gentlelady
    Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room.
* (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.
* (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 possessive 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

* April gentleman
* country gentleman
* first gentleman
* gent
* gentleboy
* gentleman about town
* gentleman and scholar
* gentleman-at-arms
* gentleman-commoner
* gentleman cow
* gentleman farmer
* gentlemanhood
* gentleman-in-waiting
* gentlemanish
* gentlemanism
* gentlemanize
* Gentleman Jim
* gentlemanliness
* gentlemanly
* gentleman of leisure
* gentleman of the back door
* gentleman's bet
* gentleman's C
* gentleman scientist
* gentleman's gentleman
* gentlemanship
* gentleman usher
* gentlemen's agreement
* gentlemen's club
* gentlemen's room
* gentlethem
* ladies and gentlemen
* old gentleman
* put the beggar on the gentleman
* scholar and gentleman
* second gentleman
* temporary gentleman
* transgentleman
* ungentleman
* walking gentleman

#### Related terms

* gentlewoman
* gentlelady

#### Descendants

* 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)

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

## Chinese
### Etymology

From English gentleman.

### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): zen$^1$ tou$^4$ man$^4$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: zen$^1$ tou$^4$ man$^4$
*** Cantonese Pinyin: dzen$^1$ tou$^4$ man$^4$
*** Sinological IPA : /t͡sɛːn⁵⁵ tʰou̯²¹ mɐn²¹/

### Adjective

gentleman
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) gentlemanlike

#### See also

* man

## Chinese Pidgin English
### Alternative forms

* 毡地文 (Chinese spelling)

### Etymology

From English gentleman.

### Noun

gentleman
* 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 *hi$^1$ long$^4$ wan$^1$ zhin$^1$[zhen$^1$] di$^6$ man$^4$ tok$^3$ ki$^4$ 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

* IPA: /dʒɛn.tlə.man/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

gentleman m (plural gentlemen or gentlemans)
* gentleman, especially an anglophone one

### Further reading

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

### Anagrams

* mélangent

## Romanian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English gentleman.

### Noun

gentleman m (plural gentlemeni)
* gentleman

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Noun

gentleman m (plural gentlémanes)
* British gentleman

### Further reading

* “gentleman”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English gentleman.

### Noun

gentleman c
* a gentleman (refined, well-mannered man)
    Synonym: (plural, humorous) hängslemän
    en äkta gentlemana real gentleman

#### Derived terms

* gentlemannamässig

#### See also

* herre

### References

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

## Yola
### Etymology

From Middle English gentilman.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈd͡ʒɛntlman/

### Noun

gentleman
* 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