Gentry

How to spell gentry

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gentry

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gentry mean?

1. nounPeople of good social standing, especially the landowning class ranked just below the nobility.

Gentry in a sentence

• The local gentry once owned most of the farmland in the valley.

• The novel describes the country gentry and their grand estates.

Where does gentry come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1300s from the Old French genterie, meaning 'noble birth' or 'people of good family', which was built on the adjective gentil, 'well-born' or 'high-born'. That adjective in turn came from the Latin gentilis, 'belonging to the same family or clan', formed on gens, meaning 'clan, race, or stock'. Over time the English sense narrowed from the general idea of noble birth to a specific social rank: the well-born landowning class ranked just below the nobility. The very same gentil root branched out into a whole family of familiar English words, including 'gentle', 'genteel', and 'gentleman', all carrying the older flavour of refined good breeding. Remembering that 'gentry' shares its core with 'gentle' helps fix the spelling, since both keep the gent- spelling rather than any j- form.

How the word is built

• gentr- (from Old French gentil: well-born, noble)
• -y (noun suffix forming a collective group)