gente

Forms

gente f (plural genti)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian giente, Old Italian zente and ⟨genti⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gens (“clan, family; people, nation”), from the accusative ⟨gentem⟩, a noun related to gignō (“to beget”).^[4][5][6][1] It is panromance: French gent, Occitan gen, Catalan gent, Old Spanish ⟨yente⟩ (Spanish gente) and Portuguese gente.^[5][7] Romanian has it only indirectly, through Albanian.^[7]

The Latin word first meant the group of those who acknowledge a common ancestor, and then family, descent, race and nation.^[4] Under the Empire the plural named foreign peoples, and in Christian Latin the pagans, after Ancient Greek ἔθνη (éthnē, “nations”), which itself rendered Biblical Hebrew גּוֹיִם (gōyīm), the non-Jewish peoples.^[4][5] That sense passed into Italian only through the learned word gentile.^[7] Wiktionary traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tim.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, where gente means people gathered together or people in general.^[4][5][8] GDLI quotes his comparison of the lover “como l'altra genti” (like other people).^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word also took the Latin senses “people, nation”, in the Italian Livy and constantly in Dante, and “group of families of the same stock”, in a Bible translation.^[4] Giovanni Villani (before 1348) uses it for a kind of people and for soldiers, in gente d'arme.^[4]

Many modern phrases name a class of people: gente di chiesa (1919, D'Annunzio), gente di teatro (1965), gente di toga and gente di tavolino (1869, Tommaseo–Bellini).^[4] Gente di lettere translates French gens de lettres, which Panzini still recorded in the French form in 1905.^[4] Gentaglia “riff-raff” (14th century) is, as Alessio recognised, Old French gentaille.^[4][5]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses gente for people.^[4]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “population”.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses gente d'arme “soldiers”.^[4]
• 14th century – A Bible translation uses it for a group of families of the same stock.^[4]
• 1905 – Panzini records gens de lettres, gente di lettere follows.^[4]
• 1919 – D'Annunzio uses gente di chiesa.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. people, persons in general; other people, as opposed to oneself: Non mi importa di cosa pensa la gente.^[8][9][6]
2. An indefinite number of persons, few or many, even a single person: C'era poca gente in spiaggia.^[8][6][10]
3. A class of people sharing a feature, as in gente di mare “seafarers” and gente di campagna “country people”.^[8][9][10]
4. (literary) A people, nation; also a lineage or family.^[8][6][11]
5. (history) A Roman gens, a group of families with a common ancestor.^[8][11][10]
6. (nautical) The crew of a ship.^[8][12]
7. (in the plural, early Christianity) The Gentiles, the pagans, as in l'apostolo delle genti, Saint Paul.^[8][9][11]
8. (archaic) Troops, soldiers.^[8][6][11]

Word family

• gentaglia
• gentaccia
• genterella

Related words

• gentile
• genere
• Latin gens

Usage notes

Gente is a collective noun in the singular; the plural genti is literary and means peoples or nations.^[11][10] A separate archaic adjective gente “noble, gracious” was borrowed in the 13th century from Old Occitan gent, from the Latin phrase homo gentis (“man of a noble family”), and spread through Sicilian poetry;^[8][13][10] Giacomo da Lentini addresses his lady as “chiù gente!” (most gracious one).^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6
3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1785
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1786