The word gentile does not have a single meaning in our language, so it is necessary to take a tour of its different meanings and uses.
As a synonym for kind person
It is said that someone is gentle when they are kind, courteous and polite in relation to personal dealings with others. Acting kindly is understood to be a rule of good manners. Who does not comply with this rule is valued as someone 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 an unwritten standard of civility. In other words, kind and gentle actions facilitate interpersonal relationships and good coexistence. Despite this, a gesture of kindness in a particular social context may have a different meaning for people in other 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 or civil law and the others (the people) were subject to the so-called ius gentium or the right of the people.
In the Jewish and Christian tradition
For Jews, Gentiles are all those people or social groups that do not profess the Jewish religion. 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 derogatory connotation. 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 medieval thinker intends 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.
Photos: iStock - freemixer / Paolo Cipriani
