gentility (jentiliti)

[ The surname is the name of the gentil i tie and stocke, which the sonne doth take of the father alwaies, as the old Romans did. Sir T. Smith , Commonwealth, iii. 8. "Prohibition of marriage would surely endanger" the gentility of the nation. N. and Q., 7th ser., IV. 185. The grammarian observes that there is a certain agnation and gentility among words. All the cases of the noun Æmilius are descended from the nominative, just as all the members of the gens Æmilia, all the Æmilii, are descended from a single original Æmilius. [Varro, De Lingua Latina, viii. 4.] The Romans, therefore, regarded gen tility as a kinship among men not e entially different from agnation. Maine , Early Law and Custom, p. 283, note A. 2t. Noble or gentle birth. Hy ham yelpeth of hare gentyleté , uor thet hy weneth by of gentile woze [They boast of their gentility, for they think to be of gentle blood]. Ayenbite of Inwyt (E. E. T. S.), p. 89. Eyther the communers onlye must be welthy, and the gentyl and noble men needy and miserable: or elles, excludyng gentylitie , al men must be of one degre and sort, and a new name prouided. Sir T. Elyot, The Govern our, i. 2. 31. People of good birth; gentry. Gavelkind must needs in the end make a poor gentility. Sir J. Davies, State of Ireland. 41. Gentile character; paganism; heathenism. Places, landes, or coastes, as well within the coastes and limites of gentility as within the dominions and Seigniories of the sayd mighty Emperour and Duke. Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 272. When the people began to espie the falshood of oracles, whereupon all gentil i tie was built, their heart were vtterly auerted from it. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, v. § 2. 5. The quality or state of being genteel; condition, appearance, or manner characteristic of polite society; genteel behavior; fashionablene ; stylishne . 'Tis meet a gentle heart should ever shew By courtesie the fruit of true gentility . Sir J. Haring ton . Neither did they establish their claims to gentility at the expense of their tailors - for as yet those offenders against the pockets of society, and the tranquillity of all aspiring young gentlemen, were unknown in New Amsterdam. Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 175. In the elder English dramatists, there is a constant recognition of gentility , as if a noble behaviour were as easily marked in the society of their age as color is in our American population. Emerson, E ays, 1st ser., p. 223. gentilize gentilize (jen'ti-liz), v.; pret. and pp. gentilized, ppr. gentilizing. [Formerly also gentleize; Di embling broakers, made of all deceipts, Who falsifie your measures and your weights T' inrich your selues, and your vnthrifty Sons To gentilize with proud po e ions. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 3. Religion is the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It alone will gentilize , if unmixed with cant. Cole ridge. II. in trans. 1. To live like a gentile, or like a heathen. God's known Denouncement against the gentilizing Israeli tes, who, though they were govern'd in a Commonwealth of God's own ordaining, he only thir King, they his peculiar People, yet.. clamour'd for a King. Milton , Free Commonwealth. 21. To play the gentleman. Norden , Surveyor's Dialogue (1608).