gentility

• “I said that my country-folk in general had a great many admirable qualities, but at the same time a great many foibles, foremost amongst which last was a crazy admiration for what they called gentility, which made them sycophantic to their superiors in station, and extremely insolent to those whom they considered below them.”

  Wild Wales : Its People, Language and Scenery

• “The generality of his countrymen are far more careful not to transgress the customs of what they call gentility, than to violate the laws of honour or morality.”

  Grammar.

• “The generality of his countrymen are far more careful not to transgress the customs of what they call gentility than to violate the laws of honour or morality.”

  The Romany Rye A Sequel to 'Lavengro'

• “As Maryjean Wall relates in "How Kentucky Became Southern," the state's familiar gentility is largely invented — and relatively recently at that.”

  The Wall Street Journal: Behind the Bluegrass

• “I'm the sort of person who publishes my opinion on the internet ... you can't expect much in the way of gentility from the likes of me.”

  The "I Told You So!"

• “I say "gentility" -- but that is not exactly the word; for there is not the remotest trace of snobbishness in Henry James.”

  Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations

• “It is because the indefinable, but to those who can perceive it unmistakable, _aura_ of "gentility" -- in the true and not the debased sense -- is, at best, questionably present.”

  A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century

• “Social intercourse disseminated these ideas among those to whom they were novel; where, previously, the highest motive to improvement had been a desire for convenience, the idea of gentility began to claim an influence; and some of the more moderate embellishments of life assumed the place of the mere necessaries.”

  Western Characters or Types of Border Life in the Western States

• “To belong to this class when you were at the £400 a year level was a queer business, for it meant that your gentility was almost purely theoretical.”

  The Road to Wigan Pier

• “But our gentility is a little self-conscious, for we live on the very frontier of a region, darker in complexion, which is far from scrupulous in deportment.”

  Pipefuls

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