genteel
elegant, polite
TRANSLATION
genteel = elegant, modisch, vornehm, affektiert
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
In 1966, after the army board had classified him unfit (on account of his flat feet), Michael Bloomberg took a Wall Street job at Salomon Brothers.
In those days, Salomon (whose unofficial mottoes included "Dress British, think Yiddish") was less GENTEEL than such investment-banking houses as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Risk-taking of all sorts was celebrated, as were most forms of aggression - screaming, cursing, bullying, backstabbing...
Indeed, to succeed on Salomon's trading floor, one of the firm's senior partners told Bloomberg one day, a person had to come to work each morning "ready to bite the ass off a bear."
Bloomberg's first assignment? Working in "the cage" (an un-air-conditioned bank vault) counting out stock and bond certificates - in his underwear.
Bloomberg, Michael Rubens (1942- ) American businessman and politician, founder of Bloomberg LP, mayor of New York (2002- ) noted for his autobiographical "Bloomberg on Bloomberg"
In those days, Salomon (whose unofficial mottoes included "Dress British, think Yiddish") was less GENTEEL than such investment-banking houses as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Risk-taking of all sorts was celebrated, as were most forms of aggression - screaming, cursing, bullying, backstabbing...
Indeed, to succeed on Salomon's trading floor, one of the firm's senior partners told Bloomberg one day, a person had to come to work each morning "ready to bite the ass off a bear."
Bloomberg's first assignment? Working in "the cage" (an un-air-conditioned bank vault) counting out stock and bond certificates - in his underwear.
Bloomberg, Michael Rubens (1942- ) American businessman and politician, founder of Bloomberg LP, mayor of New York (2002- ) noted for his autobiographical "Bloomberg on Bloomberg"
Did you
know?
genteel
1. Refined in manner; well-bred and polite.
2. Free from vulgarity or rudeness.
3. Elegantly stylish: genteel manners and appearance.
Synonyms: polite, mannerly, civil, courteous, genteel. These adjectives mean mindful of, conforming to, or marked by good manners.
POLITE and MANNERLY imply consideration for others and the adherence to conventional social standards of good behavior: “It costs nothing to be polite” (Winston S. Churchill). The child was scolded by his grandmother for not being more mannerly.
CIVIL suggests only the barest observance of accepted social usages; it often means merely neither polite nor rude: If you can't be friendly, at least be civil.
COURTEOUS implies courtliness and dignity: “If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world” (Francis Bacon).
GENTEEL, which originally meant well-bred, now often suggests excessive and affected refinement: “A man, indeed, is not genteel when he gets drunk” (James Boswell).
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
1. Refined in manner; well-bred and polite.
2. Free from vulgarity or rudeness.
3. Elegantly stylish: genteel manners and appearance.
Synonyms: polite, mannerly, civil, courteous, genteel. These adjectives mean mindful of, conforming to, or marked by good manners.
POLITE and MANNERLY imply consideration for others and the adherence to conventional social standards of good behavior: “It costs nothing to be polite” (Winston S. Churchill). The child was scolded by his grandmother for not being more mannerly.
CIVIL suggests only the barest observance of accepted social usages; it often means merely neither polite nor rude: If you can't be friendly, at least be civil.
COURTEOUS implies courtliness and dignity: “If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world” (Francis Bacon).
GENTEEL, which originally meant well-bred, now often suggests excessive and affected refinement: “A man, indeed, is not genteel when he gets drunk” (James Boswell).
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
