gentrice

English

Etymology

From Middle English gentryse, from Old French genterise, variant form of gentelise, from gentil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛntɹɪs/

Noun

gentrice (uncountable)

1. (archaic) The state or quality of being high-born; gentility.
   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:

     “And where could I get a horse to him?” cried Alan, turning on her with the same appearance of fury. “Would ye have me steal?”
     […] “Ye neednae tell me,” she said at last—“ye’re gentry.”
     “Well,” said Alan, softened a little (I believe against his will) by this artless comment, “and suppose we were? Did ever you hear that gentrice put money in folk’s pockets?”

   • 1939, Harold W. Thompson, Body, Boots, & Britches: Folktales, Ballads, and Speech from Country New York, Syracuse University Press, published 1979, →ISBN, page 326:

     The tragedy, however, as Burke and other British statesmen were to declare, had already been prepared indirectly by Gentlemen Johnny Burgoyne, whose claims to gentrice were as dubious as his talents as a general.

2. (archaic) High-born individuals collectively; gentry.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     Where she came from no man could tell. There were some said she was no woman, but a ghost haunting some mortal tenement. Others would threep she was gentrice, come of a persecuting family in the west, who had been ruined in the Revolution wars.

   • 1913, Richard Middleton, The Ghost Ship and Other Stories, Mitchell Kennerley, published 1913, page 16:

     […] I don't hold with gentrice who fetch their drink from London instead of helping local traders to get their living."

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:gentrice.

Anagrams

• erecting