genteel

• adj.教養のある、洗練された、上流階級の

generateと語源は同じで、子孫を残すという意味のgenが語源。 もともとは高貴さ、優雅さを生むことだったが、後に侮蔑的に使われるようになった。

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).

1. Her genteel accent irritated me.

彼女のこざかしい口調は私を苦しめた。

2.She always talks in such a genteel voice when she 's on the phone.

彼女は電話をかけると、いつも上品な口調で話す。

3.It was a place to which genteel families came in search of health and quiet.

上流社会の家庭が健康と静謐を求める場所である。

4.You are genteel enough，you look like a lady.

あなたはとても上品で、お嬢様のように見えます。

5.There are not as many genteel young men in Devonshire as Sussex.

スセックスに比べて、ドイツ語郡の教養のある若者は多くない。