Note 055
Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two etymologies are produced:

1. From the Barbarians of the fifth century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of the Roman empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility; and
2. From the sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with ingenuus.

Selden inclines to the first but the latter is more pure, as well as probable.

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 58