gentilesse
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of gentilesse
1300–50; Middle English < Middle French gentillesse, equivalent to gentil ( see genteel, gentle) + -esse noun suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s for grammatical consistency, not beauty or gentilesse, for example, that correct English has us say “It was he” instead of “It was him.”
From The New Yorker • Nov. 3, 2014
So wot I nothing after kinde Where I mai gentilesse finde.
From Confessio Amantis, or, Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)
Crist wol, we clayme of him our gentilesse, Nat of our eldres for hir old richesse.
From Chaucer and His Times by Hadow, Grace E.
The ground, Mi Sone, forto seche Upon this diffinicion, The worldes constitucion Hath set the name of gentilesse Upon the fortune of richesse Which of long time is falle in age.
From Confessio Amantis, or, Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)
Emerson was very fond of the passage on "gentilesse" in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale.
From Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Turpin, Edna Henry Lee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
