喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can think of it as a man measured by how he behaves rather than by who he is — calm, , treating people well even when there is nothing in it for him. From that picture the word goes two ways: outward into a polite label for any man you don't know, and back into its older use for men of a certain landed class.

可以想成：gentleman 講的不只是「男的」，而是一個用舉止被衡量的男人——說話留餘地、對誰都客氣，尤其是對那些…更多收起可以想成：gentleman 講的不只是「男的」，而是一個用舉止被衡量的男人——說話留餘地、對誰都客氣，尤其是對那些他其實不必客氣的人。從這個畫面往外，它一邊變成純粹禮貌的稱呼（各位先生、這位男士），一邊往回連到比較舊的一層：家裡有地、不必工作的那個階層。

原始詞典資料7 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

Gentlemanname

  • 1

    A surname transferred from the nickname.

gentlemannoun/ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/

  • 1

    Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man.

    • I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.
    • As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,[…]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get.[…]I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • 2

    Any man.

    • Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room.
  • 3

    historicalA man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armigerous man ranking below a knight.

    • Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself.
    • And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d: And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes, Share equally the gold that bought their liues, And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]
  • 4

    derogatoryAn effeminate or oversophisticated man.

    • Well, la-di-da, aren't you just a proper gentleman?
  • 5

    derogatoryhistoricalAn amateur or dabbler in any field, particularly those of independent means.

    • Latrobe had extensive dealings with Jefferson, the most prominent gentleman-architect in the United States.
  • 6

    ball-gamescricketgamesAn amateur player, particularly one whose wealth permits him to forego payment.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。