gentile

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who is not Jewish, often written with an initial capital

   The historian examined how Jews and Gentiles lived together in the port city.

2. 2
   adj

   relating to people who are not Jewish

   The letter addressed both Jewish and Gentile audiences.

3. 3
   adj

   historically or anthropologically, relating to a gens, clan, or people linked by common descent

   The tribe was described as a federation of gentile groups organized by kinship.

From French gentil, from Latin gentilis, 'of the same clan or nation,' from gens, 'clan, tribe, or people.' Biblical Latin used the plural gentiles for the nations outside Israel, which produced the modern Jewish and Christian sense 'a person who is not Jewish.' The older clan-related sense survives in historical writing.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary