gentrification

Etymology

It is formed from English gentrify + -ification,^[2][3][4] though Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Webster's Third analyse it as gentry with -fication, and take the verb as a back-formation from the noun.^[5][6] The OED has the verb from 1850 in the sense "to make someone a member of the gentry, or more refined", and in the housing sense only from 1972.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of New Words points out that the people who move into the working-class areas are the professional middle class rather than the gentry.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The changing of the character of a poor urban area by wealthier people moving in: 1964, in R. Glass's introduction to a book on London, which says that "once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district, it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working class occupiers are displaced".^[2][5] The 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline date the word to 1973,^[8][3][9] and Dictionary.com to 1975–80.^[4]

Semantic evolution

According to the Oxford Dictionary of New Words, town planners used the word in the early 1970s for the movement of middle-class professionals back into inner cities, where they renovated cottages and terraces built for industrial workers; as whole districts changed in the 1980s it passed from the jargon of sociologists and planners into the press, often with a pejorative tone, and was applied to anything moved up-market, even bonds in stock-market jargon.^[7] Cassell's dictionary calls it a particular feature of 1960s British property development and quotes Godfrey Smith's definition (1983): "that moment in the life of an old working man's cottage when the new owners paint the front door aubergine".^[9] The OED records the wider sense, the making of a person, activity or trend more refined, from 1977, in the Times heading "The gentrification of British menswear".^[2] Collins labels the urban sense British,^[10] while the American dictionaries stress the displacement of poorer residents.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1964 – the changing of a poor urban area by wealthier people moving in.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the word to 1973.^[3]
• 1977 – the making of a person, activity or trend more refined or respectable.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process in which better-off people move into a run-down, usually working-class area of a city, renovating housing and bringing new businesses, often displacing poorer residents: Rents rose sharply as gentrification spread along the canal.^{[5][10][2][11]}
2. The process of making something more refined, polite or up-market.^[2][7]

Related words

• gentrify
• gentry

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c Knowles, Elizabeth; Elliott, Julia, eds. (1997), The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Cassell's Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, London: Cassell
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt