[UN-1 12.]
† 1. Lack of good breeding or manners; discourtesy; boorishness. Obs.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. ii. (Skeat), l. 132. And therfore, he that wol ben gentil, he mot daunten his flesshe fro vyces that causen ungenilnesse.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VIII. xxxviii. 332. For your curtosy and gentilness I shewed you vngentilnesse, & that now me repenteth.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., II. xv. (1536), 150. The whiche forgettynge is as straunge to be in him that serueth, as vngentilnes in the ladye that is serued.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 131. It is taken for vngentlenes and dishonor,… if any gentleman doe take an other gentlemans seruant [etc.].
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., V. ii. 83. You haue done me much vngentlenesse, To shew the letter that I writ to you.
2. Meanness of birth. rare–0.
1552. Huloet, Vngentlenes of bloude, ignobilitas.
3. Harshness, roughness, unkindness.
1548. Patten, Exped. Scotl., Pref. d ij. It was too muche vngentlenes and inhumanitie sure in suche a case too be shewed.
1598. Florio, Inhumanita, inhumanitie, vngentlenes.
1623. Cockeram, II. Vngentlenes, inclemencie.
1716–20. Lett. fr. Mist’s Jrnl. (1722), I. 231. There runs through the Male Line an odd Ungentleness of Temper.
1871. Smiles, Charac., ix. (1876), 240. Their own crossgrained ungentleness.
1889. F. C. Kolbe, Minnie Caldwell, iv. 30. Whatever ungentleness or unkindness she had shown…, had proceeded from thoughtlessness, not ungenerosity.
