gentile

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also:Gentile,gentilé,andĝentile

English

[edit]
WOTD – 16 July 2016
EnglishWikipediahas an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]
A collage ofArab citizensofIsrael.Such citizens are largely non-Jewish,and so are gentile(sense 1).

Borrowed fromFrenchgentil(“gentile”),fromLatingentīlis(“of or belonging to the same people or nation”),morphologically fromgēns(“clan;tribe;people,family”)+ adjective suffix-īlis(“-ile”).Doubletofgentle,genteel,andjaunty.See alsogens,gender,genus,andgeneration.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • IPA(key):/ˈd͡ʒɛntaɪl/
  • Rhymes:-aɪl
  • Hyphenation:gen‧tile
  • Audio(UK):(file)

Adjective

[edit]

gentile(notcomparable)

  1. Non-Jewish.
    Synonyms:non-Jewish,goyish
    • 1711,[John Hildrop],“The Preface”, inA Treatise of the Three Evils of the Last Times:[…],London: Printed by M. J. for R[obert]Knaplock[…],R. and J. Bonwicke[…],and H. Clements[…],→OCLC,pages lxxiv–lxxv:
      This ſhall bring down theJudgmentuponRome,preſently after the Appearance ofAntichriſt:and as uponRome,ſo alſo upon all theGentileChriſtians, who havea Name to live but are dead,being fallen away from theirFirſt LoveandFaith,and ſo having made themſelves Veſſels fit for Deſtruction, when this ſore Judgment ſhall go forth.
    • 1847,William Kelly, “Introduction”, inA Grammar of Gregorian, or Plain Chant Music,London: Thomas Richardson and Son,[…],→OCLC,pages11–12:
      If we read theEpistlesofSt. Paul,we shall soon discover what efforts the Jewish converts made to bring theGentileconverts into the observance of every Jewish custom compatible with christianity:[sic]and as we do not discover in those Epistles any traces of a dispute on this head between the Jewish andGentileconverts, we may fairly conclude that theGentileconverts adopted without hesitation the time-honoured manner of praising the true God made use of by the Jewish converts, instead of the Pagan mode of singing, which was then associated in their minds with every thing unclean and abominable.
    • 1996,"Weird Al" Yankovic(lyrics and music), “The Night Santa Went Crazy”,inBad Hair Day‎[1]:
      Down in the workshop all the elves were makin' toys
      For the goodgentilegirls and the goodgentileboys
    • 2001,E[d] P[arish] Sanders,“Jesus in Galilee”, in Doris Donnelly, editor,Jesus: A Colloquium in the Holy Land,New York, N.Y., London:Continuum International Publishing Group,→ISBN,page14:
      There is further evidence of the fact that both Romans and the Herodians distinguished Jewish fromGentileareas and treated them differently.Heroddid not produce pagan coins, bearing an image ofAugustusor himself, but rather good Jewish coins. It is noteworthy that he built numerous pagan buildings, including temples honouring Augustus and an amphitheater for Greek games, and he donated gymnasia to territories that he did not govern:[…]But (and this is a very big "but" ) he put none of theseGentile/pagan buildings in the Jewish parts of his domain.
  2. Heathen,pagan.
    • 2013,Marion Gibson,Imagining the Pagan Past: Gods and Goddesses in Literature and History since the Dark Ages,Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.:Routledge,→ISBN,page26:
      [John] Bale,following Annius [Annio da Viterbo], argued that druids, bards and other ‘gentile’ (pagan) priests had preserved from Noah’s time the memory of a true religion that believed ‘that there is one God, immortal and incomprehensible’ (‘unum esse Deum immortalem, et incomprehensibilem...’).
  3. (Mormonism)Non-Mormon.
  4. Relating to aclan,tribe,ornation;clannish,tribal,national.
    • 1902,Frederick Engels,translated byErnest Untermann,The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,Chicago, Ill.:C. H. Kerr & Co.,→OCLC:
      As distinct from the oldgentileorder, the state, first, divides its subjectsaccording to territory.As we have seen, the oldgentileassociations, built upon and held together by ties of blood, became inadequate, largely because they presupposed that the members were bound to a given territory, a bond which had long ceased to exist. The territory remained, but the people had become mobile. Hence, division according to territory was taken as the point of departure, and citizens were allowed to exercise their public rights and duties wherever they settled, irrespective of gens and tribe.
    • 1990,Leo Gumilëv,Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere,Moscow:Progress Publishers,→ISBN,page85:
      It is possible to manage without agentilesystem. Many ethnoi are divided into tribes and clans.
  5. Of or pertaining to agensor severalgentes.
    • 1877,Lewis H[enry] Morgan,Ancient Society, or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization,New York, N.Y.:Henry Holt and Company,→OCLC,pages84–85:
      The council was the great feature of ancient society, Asiatic, European and American, from the institution of the gens in savagery to civilization.[…]As the council sprang from thegentileorganization the two institutions have come down together through the ages. The Council of Chiefs represents the ancient method of evolving the wisdom of mankind and applying it to human affairs. Its history,gentile,tribal, and confederate, would express the growth of the idea of government in its whole development, until political society supervened into which the council, changed into a senate, was transmitted.
    • 2011,Robin Fox,The Tribal Imagination: Civilization and the Savage Mind,Cambridge, Mass., London:Harvard University Press,→ISBN,page300:
      He [Lewis Henry Morgan] was anxious to look for the origins of the crucial "stage" that he found exemplified in his belovedIroquoisand the North American Indians generally, that of thegentes.[…]Morgan called this gens or clan stage, perhaps confusingly, the stage ofgentilesociety.His discovery that this form of what we would now call "unilineal descent" characterized not only the whole of North and South America, but also the original societies of Greece and Rome, was a stupendous revelation about the universal history of mankind. He knew little of Africa and Asia, but they would have supported his observation, thegentileorganization—the clans—lasting in China, for example, until modern times.
  6. (grammar)Of apart of speechsuch as anadjective,nounorverb:relating to a particular city, nation or country.
    • 1825,Samuel Oliver Jun.,A General, Critical Grammar of the Inglish Language; on a System Novel, and Extensive:[…],London: Published, for the author, by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy,→OCLC,page115:
      Gentileverbs are so denominated because derived fromgentilenouns, or from proper nouns, oradnouns:they relate to countries, and to places generally, or to men: the following are examples:Greecise,Latinise,Anglicise,[…]Aristotelise,Sophoclise,Shakesperianise.Gentileverbs in their radical form terminate inise,with some few exceptions infy,ate,and in their past participle withised,being all of the first conjugation: they are formed by annexingiseto agentilenoun or to a proper substantive or to a proper adjective.
    • 1854,William Barnes,“Etymology”, inA Philological Grammar: Grounded upon English, and Formed from a Comparison of More Than Sixty Languages.[…],London: John Russell Smith,[…],→OCLC,page71:
      GentileNouns.[…]To this form belong ourgentilenouns Englishman, Welshman, Scotchman, Irishman. These nouns are represented in Irish by adjectives or nouns of the form (1+ac): Alban-ac, Scotchman.

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Translations

[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

[edit]

gentile(pluralgentiles)

  2. (Judaism)Anon-Jewishperson.
    Synonyms:non-Jew,goy
    • 1671,Theophilus Gale,“Of the Academicks, and New Platonicks of Alexandria”, inThe Court of the Gentiles: or, A Discourse Touching the Original of Human Literature, both Philologie, and Philosophie, from the Scriptures, and Jewish Church:[…],part II (Of Philosophie), Oxford: Printed by Will[iam]Hall, for Tho[mas]Gilbert,→OCLC,book III,page253:
      Yea farther, ſo glorious, and raviſhing were the firſt dawnings ofGoſpel light,which brought ſuch glad tidings of Salvation to Mankind, as that not only theJews,but alſo ſome ſober minded, inquiſitiveGentilesrejoyced in this Light for a ſeaſon[…]who yet never had a through work of Converſion on their hearts:[…]
    • 1810,George Ensor,“What Should Disqualify Persons from Being Electors or Representatives”, inOn National Government,[...]In Two Volumes,volume II, London: Printed forJ[oseph]Johnson,[…];for the benefit of theLiterary Fund,→OCLC,pages32–33:
      If a Jew cheated aGentileone sixth in the purchase or in the sale of any commodity, theGentilewas without remedy; not so if aGentileimposed on a Jew to the same amount. Theft likewise by aGentilefrom a Jew was death, not so if the parties were changed: and the same odious injustice they manifested in their law on homicide.[…]it is rather extraordinary, thatPlatoshould say, the penalty for the death of a native and of a foreigner should be different.
  3. (Mormonism)Anon-Mormonperson.
  4. (grammar)Anounderived from aproper nounwhich denotes something belonging to or coming from a particular city, nation, or country.
    • 1956,Herbert Weir Smyth,Gordon M. Messing,Greek Grammar,Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press,→ISBN,page233:
      Gentilesare denominative nouns denoting belonging to or coming from a particularcountry,nation,orcity.Gentilesare formed from proper nouns by secondary suffixes.

Hypernyms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Italian

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • IPA(key):/d͡ʒenˈti.le/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes:-ile
  • Hyphenation:gen‧tì‧le

Etymology 1

[edit]

BorrowedfromLatingentīlis.

Adjective

[edit]

gentile(pluralgentili,superlativegentilissimo)

  1. kind,courteous
  2. gentle
  3. lovely
Derived terms
[edit]
[edit]
Further reading
[edit]
  • gentile1in Treccani.it –Vocabolario Treccani on line,Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 2

[edit]

FromLatingentīlis(“heathen, pagan”).

Noun

[edit]

gentilem(pluralgentili)

  1. gentile(a non-Jewish person)
Derived terms
[edit]
[edit]
  • gentilità

Adjective

[edit]

gentile(pluralgentili)

  1. (literary)gentile(non-Jewish)
Further reading
[edit]
  • gentile2in Treccani.it –Vocabolario Treccani on line,Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Adjective

[edit]

gentīle

  1. nominative/accusative/vocativeneutersingularofgentīlis

References

[edit]

Swedish

[edit]

Adjective

[edit]

gentile

  1. definitenatural masculinesingularofgentil
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=gentile&oldid=82512194"