genteel
genteel 英 [dʒenˈti:l] 美 [dʒɛnˈtil]
adj. 有教养的，文雅的；上流社会的
- Although the adjective genteel means high-class and refined, it is often used today in a somewhat mocking tone, as though good manners and elegance are passé. Still, it would be nice if more people were a little more genteel.
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- adj. 有教养的，文雅的；上流社会的
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1. She was a good example of a genteel woman, Lydia thought.
利迪娅想，她是有教养的女性中的一个范例。
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2. The formal exchange of tributes may seem like nostalgic gestures from a more genteel, less cynical era, but the participants re-enact a classical political dramaturgy.
正式的互致敬意或许看上去像是重文雅而轻不恭的旧时代的风范，但其实参与者是在重演一幕经典的政治艺术剧。
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3. Their list of important sights and experiences does not resemble the genteel image that Europeans have of their own homeland—it includes more duty-free shopping, for a start.
他们必游地名单和他们的旅游经历没能给欧洲人留下他们祖国的文雅形象，首先的印象是中国人逛免税店。
- 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).
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