gente

Forms

gente f (plural gentes)^[1] Old texts also spell it jente;^[2] Post Scriptum has jemte in a letter of about 1500, and Houaiss jente in 1873.^[3][2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gēns (“clan, family, people, nation”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gente in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician xente, Catalan gent, Occitan gent, Italian gente and French gens, the last an old plural of Old French gent.^[6][1][7] In Castilian the inherited form was Old Spanish yente, the usual one in the Cid.^[8] Corominas takes Spanish gente as a Latinised form of it.^[8]

The Latin word is from *gentis, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis, from the root *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth”).^[1][9] It is related to gignō (“to beget”) and genus (“birth, kind”), and is cognate with Sanskrit जाति (jāti, “birth”) and English kind.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[4][5] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it often: viron angeos andar / ontr'a gent'assũada “they saw angels walking among the gathered people”, and also for a lady's retinue (foi-ss'ende con sa gente) and for soldiers, gente d'armas.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts gente meant people in general, a nation, a lord's retinue and an army; the Crónica Geral uses it constantly for troops.^[3][10] The dictionaries from Cardoso to Bluteau gloss it with Latin gens and homines “people, men and women”, and Folqman (1755) separates nation, people and soldiers.^[11][12][13]

The phrase a gente came to stand for the speaker: Figueiredo (1899) and Silva Bastos (1912) give the sense “we, when we speak”, and Houaiss records a gente both for “I” and for “we”.^[14][15][4] In Brazil the noun also means one's family, a group of servants or followers, and a person who commands respect; the exclamation gente! expresses surprise.^[4][1][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records; the Cantigas de Santa Maria use gente for a crowd, a retinue and soldiers.^[5][3]
• c. 1400 – gente in a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum.^[17]
• c. 1500 – the spelling jemte in a private letter.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin gens.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau glosses it as people, men and women.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the sense “we”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. People, a number of persons; a crowd.^[4][18][1]
2. The inhabitants of a place or country; a people, nation.^[4][19]
3. The human race, humanity.^[4][19]
4. A group of people who share a trait, profession or interest.^[4][18]
5. (Brazil) One's family.^[4]
6. (Brazil) The people in someone's service or following; servants, followers, a band.^[4]
7. A person of worth, who commands respect.^[4]
8. (military) Armed force, troops.^[4][19]

Pronoun

1. (colloquial, as a gente) we; also the speaker alone, “I”.^[4][1]

Interjection

1. (Brazil) An exclamation of surprise or dismay.^[1][16]

Word family

• gentalha

Related words

• gentil
• gentio
• gênero
• Latin gēns
• Galician xente
• Spanish gente

Usage notes

Wiktionary gives oxente as a north-eastern Brazilian form of the exclamation oh, gente!.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. gente
3. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. gente
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gente
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gente
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3735
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gens
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 144
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. gēns
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. gente
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gente
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gente
13. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gente
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 662
15. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. gente
16. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. gente
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. gente
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gente
19. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4662