The word gentility means of gentle birth, of aristocratic origin, and it is related to the words genteel and gentle as in gentleman, words that describe both social class and an idea of refinement or rather conflate them as though they were always found together. The two words have a cousin in gentile, as in one who is not a Jew. Gentry, gentility, gentiles, gentlemen—and then eventually gentleness: the word also came to mean kindness and mildness in the sixteenth century. At the root of them all is gen-, from a proto–Indo-European word that means to give birth, to beget. Among the linguistic
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The word gentility means of gentle birth, of aristocratic origin, and it is related to the words genteel and gentle as in gentleman, words that describe both social class and an idea of refinement or rather conflate them as though they were always found together. The two words have a cousin in gentile, as in one who is not a Jew. Gentry, gentility, gentiles, gentlemen—and then eventually gentleness: the word also came to mean kindness and mildness in the sixteenth century. At the root of them all is gen-, from a proto–Indo-European word that means to give birth, to beget. Among the linguistic descendants of this root word are the English language’s generation, generative, genuine, genealogy, generous, genitals, genesis, degenerate, and later, genes, genetics, and genocide.
