| 释义 |
genteelism|dʒɛnˈtiːlɪz(ə)m|
[f. genteel a. + -ism.]
Genteel behaviour, attitudes or characteristics; spec. (see quot. 1926); also, a genteel word or expression; a genteel euphemism.
1908Westm. Gaz. 24 Jan. 3/1 They are the marks of ‘genteelism’, as distinguished from gentility. 1926Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage 212/2 By genteelism is here to be understood the substituting, for the ordinary natural word that first suggests itself to the mind, of a synonym that is thought to be less soiled by the lips of the common herd, less familiar, less plebeian, less vulgar, less improper. Ibid., The small selection of genteelisms offered below. 1934S.P.E. Tract xliii. 156 A collection of chocolates and sweets to which even the worst enemy of genteelisms could scarcely deny the epithet recherchée. 1949Archit. Rev. CV. 248 To dismiss entirely the whole field of publicity when landscaping new towns would seem to be an act of genteelism reminiscent of the days when the designer ignored everything that didn't fall into line with his own private taste. 1957E. Gowers H.W. Fowler 9 When King Richard..asks for a mirror and Bolingbroke tells someone to go and fetch a looking-glass, the usurper was inflicting..the final humiliation of being corrected for using a genteelism. 1960Spectator 19 Aug. 275 There is no end to the flood of genteelism that is eroding the language. |