21 November 2015

genteel

[jen-teel]

adjective

1. belonging or suited to polite society.
2. well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.
3. affectedly or pretentiously polite, delicate, etc.

Origin of genteel

French

1590-1600; < French gentil; see gentle

Related forms

genteelly, adverb
genteelness, noun
pseudogenteel, adjective
quasi-genteel, adjective
quasi-genteelly, adverb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for genteel

Contemporary Examples

The rolling hills of Oxfordshire, a genteel county in southeastern England, make for ideal riding country.
How Close Is Prime Minister David Cameron to Former Murdoch Deputy Rebekah Brooks?
Mike Giglio
March 13, 2012

Where Richter took moments in the news and gave them a genteel blur, Fabian Marcaccio goes for gross-out goop instead.
A Deity, Doubted
Blake Gopnik
June 3, 2012

Mischievous, more bite than bark in the sense that it was mordant with minimal rhetoric, Heaney was not genteel.
Robert Pinsky: The Comedy of Seamus Heaney
Robert Pinsky
September 30, 2013

Anagram

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Today’s quote

Common sense is not so common.

– Voltaire

On this day

21 November 164BC – Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

21 November 1694 – birth of François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. French enlightment writer, historian and philosopher. A man of wit who advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression and separation of church and state. Voltaire wrote more than 20,000 letters, 2,000 books and pamphlets. He criticised intolerance, religious dogma and social institutions. Died 30 May 1778.

21 November 1936 – birth of Victor Chang, a Chinese-Australian cardiac surgeon who pioneered heart transplants. Chang was shot dead on 4 July 1991, in a failed extortion attempt.

21 November 1965 – birth of Bjork (Björk Guðmundsdóttir), Icelandic singer-songwriter, producer and actress.

21 November 1986 – Oliver North, National Security Council staffer, begins shredding documents associated with the Iran-Contra debacle that could have implicated themselves and others within the Reagan administration in the illegal sale of arms to Iran in order to fund the rebel Nicaraguan Contras.