gentile

Etymology

A collage of Arab citizens of Israel. Such citizens are largely non-Jewish, and so are gentile (sense 1).

Borrowed from French gentil (“gentile”), from Latin gentīlis (“of or belonging to the same people or nation”), a semantic loan from Hebrew גוי‎, morphologically from gēns (“clan; tribe; people, family”) + adjective suffix -īlis (“-ile”).

Doublet of gentle, genteel and jaunty.

See also gens, gender, genus, and generation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛntaɪl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl
• Hyphenation: gen‧tile
• ||

Adjective

gentile (not comparable)

1. Non-Jewish. synonyms ▲quotations ▼Synonyms: non-Jewish, goyish
2. Heathen, pagan. quotations ▼
3. (Mormonism) Non-Mormon.
4. Relating to a clan, tribe, or nation; clannish, tribal, national. quotations ▼
5. Of or pertaining to a gens or several gentes. quotations ▼
6. (grammar) Of a part of speech such as an adjective, noun or verb: relating to a particular city, nation or country. quotations ▼

Derived terms

• gentilic
• gentilical
• gentilically

Related terms

• genteel

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