gentility
noun/dʒenˈtɪləti/
/dʒenˈtɪləti/
[uncountable] (formal)- very good manners and behaviour; the fact of belonging to a high social class
- He took her hand with discreet gentility.
- She thinks expensive clothes are a mark of gentility.
- the fact of being quiet and old-fashioned
- the faded gentility of the town
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘honourable birth’): from Old French gentilite, from gentil ‘high-born, noble’, from Latin gentilis ‘of the same clan’, from gens, gent- ‘family, race’, from the root of gignere ‘beget’.
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gentility