ungenteel

English

Etymology

From un- + genteel.

Adjective

ungenteel (comparative more ungenteel, superlative most ungenteel)

  1. Not genteel; coarse and ill-mannered.
    • 1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress:
      He was a jolly, handsome fellow, as any woman need wish for a companion; tall and well made; rather a little too large, but not so as to be ungenteel; he danced well, which I think was the first thing that brought us together.
    • 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. [], volumes (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, [], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:
      “Well, it would serve to cure him of an absurd practice of never asking a question at an inn, which he had adopted, when quite a young man, on the principal of its being very ungenteel to be curious. []
    • 1845, Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the Second,
      If I might be allowed to mention a young lady’s legs on any terms, I would observe of Miss Slowboy’s that there was a fatality about them which rendered them singularly liable to be grazed; and that she never effected the smallest ascent or descent without recording the circumstance upon them with a notch, as Robinson Crusoe marked the days upon his wooden calendar. But, as this might be considered ungenteel, I’ll think of it.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 57, in Vanity Fair [], London: Bradbury and Evans [], published 1848, →OCLC:
      But we are not going to leave these two people long in such a low and ungenteel station of life. Better days, as far as worldly prosperity went, were in store for both.
    • 1958, A.G. Yates, The Cold Dark Hours, Sydney: Horwitz, published 1963, page 135:
      The paint on the walls was cracked and peeling. It had an air of ungenteel decay.

Derived terms

Translations

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