genteel
adjective/dʒenˈtiːl/
/dʒenˈtiːl/
(sometimes disapproving)- (of people and their way of life) quiet and polite, often in an exaggerated way; from, or pretending to be from, a high social class
- a genteel manner
- Her genteel accent irritated me.
- He lived in genteel poverty (= trying to keep the style of a high social class, but with little money).
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- (of places) quiet and old-fashioned and perhaps slightly boring
Word Originlate 16th cent. (in the sense ‘fashionable, stylish’): from French gentil ‘well-born’. From the 17th cent. to the 19th cent. the word was used in such senses as ‘of good social position’, ‘having the manners of a well-born person’, ‘well bred’. The ironic or derogatory implication dates from the 19th cent.
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genteel