English
Gentoo
Gentoo may come from Portuguese gentio ‘heathen’.
- Portuguesec. 1500–presentgentio‘heathen’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1786Gentoo
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Portuguesec. 1500–presentgentio‘heathen’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1786Gentoo
Earliest quotation: 1786, Richard Payne Knight, On the Worship of Priapus: “The Greeks, and all the Celtic nations, accordingly, burned…”
The story
Of Anglo-Indian origin (17th century), apparently a borrowing from Portuguese gentio (‘heathen’) (compare gentile (‘pagan’)).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- ‘to produce, beget’
kind, king, general, nature, nation, german, native, generation, pregnant, gender, genuine, ken, generate, indigenous, generous, oxygen, gene, naive, kin, genre, noel, hydrogen, genocide, innate, gentle, natal, nee, genus, nativity, nada, naïve, janata, germ, puny, nascent, cognate, gingerly, glycogen, gentile, gens, 109 more
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵíǵn̥h₁eti ‘to engender’
through Proto-Italic *gignō
through Latin gignō ‘to be born’
Today it means
noun A non-Muslim inhabitant of India, a Hindu; specifically, in Southern India, an ethnic-Telugu.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Portuguese gentio / Gentoo