genteel
英 [dʒen'tiːl]
美 [dʒɛn'til]
助記提示
1. French gentil was reborrowed into English as genteel, in which again connotations of good breeding figure highly. Attempts at a French accent resulted ultimately in jaunty, which originally meant 'wellbred' or 'elegant'.
2. With French pronunciation and stress preserved to emphasize the distinction with gentle.
中文詞源
genteel 假斯文的來自詞根gen, 生育，詞源同generate. 原指出生高貴的，優雅的，後詞義貶義化。
英文詞源
- genteel (adj.)
- 1590s, "fashionably elegant; suitable to polite society, characteristic of a lady or gentleman; decorous in manners or behavior," from Middle French gentil "stylish, fashionable, elegant; nice, graceful, pleasing," from Old French gentil "high-born, noble" (11c.); a reborrowing (with evolved senses) of the French word that had early come into English as gentle (q.v.), with French pronunciation and stress preserved to emphasize the distinction. The Latin source of the French word is the ancestor of English gentile, but the main modern meaning of that word is from a later Scriptural sense in Latin. See also jaunty. OED 2nd ed. reports genteel "is now used, except by the ignorant, only in mockery" (a development it dates from the 1840s).
雙語例句
- 1. Her genteel accent irritated me.
- 她那矯揉造作的腔調使我感到難受。
來自《權威詞典》
- 2. She always talks in such a genteel voice when she's on the phone.
- 她打電話時,說話總是擺出一副上流架子.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
- 3. It was a place to which genteel families came in search of health and quiet.
- 這是上流社會家庭尋求健康和靜謐的場所。
來自辭典例句
- 4. You are genteel enough, you look like a lady.
- 你是夠文雅的, 看上去象個大家閨秀.
來自辭典例句
- 5. There are not as many genteel young men in Devonshire as Sussex.
- 與蘇塞克斯相比,德文郡有教養的年輕人不多.
來自辭典例句