# gentleman

Pronunciation: US say "JEN-tuhl-muhn" /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/; AUS say "JEN-tul-muhn" /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/

## Noun

1. Any man, used as a courteous or polite term of reference.
   - Simple: A polite word for any man.
   - _A gentleman in the front row stood up to ask the speaker a question._
   - _The waiter asked whether the gentleman would like to see the menu._
2. Any man who shows good breeding, polite manners, or personal charm.
   - Simple: A man who has good manners and is kind and charming.
   - _Everyone agreed he was a perfect gentleman, courteous to staff and guests alike._
   - _She married a charming gentleman who treated her family with great respect._
3. A man of gentle but not noble birth, especially one wealthy enough that he need not work for a living and holds no rank in the peerage.
   - Simple: A man from a respected family who owned land and did not need to work for money.
   - _The estate passed to a country gentleman who lived comfortably on his rents._
   - _Though only a gentleman, he bore his family's coat of arms with quiet pride._
4. An amateur player, especially one whose wealth allows him to play without being paid.
   - Simple: A sports player who plays for fun and is rich enough not to need payment.
   - _The club's finest gentleman played every match without ever accepting a fee._
   - _Each summer the gentlemen took to the field against the paid professionals._
5. An amateur or dabbler in some field, especially a man of independent means, used dismissively.
   - Simple: A man who plays at a subject for fun instead of doing it seriously, often said as an insult.
   - _The journal dismissed him as a gentleman who collected fossils without ever studying them properly._
   - _Critics sneered at the wealthy gentleman who fancied himself a serious poet._
6. An effeminate or excessively refined man, used disapprovingly.
   - Simple: A man seen as too soft or too fussy, said in a mean way.
   - _The sergeant sneered at the recruit as too much of a gentleman for hard fieldwork._
   - _They mocked him as a perfumed gentleman afraid to dirty his hands._

## Origin

From Middle English gentilman, formed from 'gentle' + 'man', and a partial calque of Old French gentilhome.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/gentleman (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).