gentleman
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gentleman
Brit History a man of gentle birth, who was entitled to bear arms, ranking above a yeoman in social position
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Gentleman
(Russian, dzhentl’men). (1) A man of “well-born” origins, a nobleman. This usage is now considered obsolete.
(2) In Great Britain and other English-speaking countries, a man who strictly adheres to the bourgeois “society” rules of behavior and observes so-called good form.
(3) A polite form of address to men in English-speaking countries. In the figurative sense a gentleman is a man who has been well brought up.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.