Concept in Definition ABC

The word gentle does not have a single meaning in our language, so it is necessary to take a tour of its different senses and uses.

As a synonym for kind person

It is said that someone is gentle when he is kind, courteous and polite in relation to personal treatment with others. It is understood that acting kindly is a rule of good education. Anyone who does not comply with this rule is valued as someone who is rude, impolite or impolite. From the term gentle, another is derived, gentleness, which is a gesture or act of attention or kindness towards others.

Being gentle is considered a rule unwritten civility. In other words, kind and gentle actions facilitate interpersonal relationships and good coexistence. Despite this, a show of kindness in a given social context may have a different meaning for people than others. places (for example, greetings are gestures of kindness but a form of greeting can be very inappropriate out of context ).

The etymology of the term and a clarification related to Roman Law

Gentile comes from the Latin gens, which means people. For the Romans there was a clear distinction between those who were Roman citizens and those who were not. The former were subject to the ius civile o civil law and the others (the people) were subjected to the so-called ius gentium or right from the people.

In the Jewish and Christian tradition

For Jews, Gentiles are all those people or social groups that do not profess the religion bean. The first Christians also referred to the Gentiles in a similar way, since they were the pagans, that is, those who did not believe in the God of the Christians.

In both Judaism and Christianity the term Gentile has a connotation contemptuous. In fact, in both cases the Gentiles are people with wrong beliefs. In this sense, it must be remembered that the Catholic theologian Santo Tomás wrote a work whose title is revealing, "Summa contra gentiles" (in it the thinker medieval It is proposed to eliminate the errors of all non-Catholic beliefs, that is, of the Gentiles).

Other disused meanings of the term

Gentil also means beautiful or funny, but it is a disused form of Old Spanish. In medieval chronicles it is common to refer to gentle girls or a gentle young man.

Gentiles are also people from other places or origins. On the other hand, the word gentile is synonymous with noble, that is, that individual who is part of the nobility.

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