Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- good breeding or refinement.
- affected or pretentious politeness or elegance.
- the status of belonging to polite society.
- members of polite society collectively.
noun plural -ties
- respectability and polite good breeding
- affected politeness
- noble birth or ancestry
- people of noble birth
mid-14c., “gentle birth,” from Old French gentilité (14c.) or directly from Latin gentilitatem (nominative gentilitas) “relationship in the same family or clan,” from gentilis (see gentle). Meaning “state of being gentile” is from 1520s.