Noah Webster
Genteel
GENTEE'L, adjective [Latin gentilis, from gens, race, stock, family, and with the sense of noble or at least respectable birth, as we use birth and family.]
1. Polite; well bred; easy and graceful in manners or behavior; having the manners of well bred people; as genteel company; genteel guests.
2. Polite; easy and graceful; becoming well bred persons; as genteel manners or behavior; a genteel address.
3. Graceful in mein or form; elegant; as the lady has a genteel person.
4. Elegantly dressed.
5. Decorous; refined; free from any thing low or vulgar; as genteel comedy.