Chapter Genevieve to George of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Gens Togata The nation which wore the toga. The Greeks wore the "pallium" and were called Gens palliata.

Gentle (g soft) means having the manners of genteel persons - i.e. persons of family, called gens in Latin.

"We must be gentle, now we are gentlemen." -
Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, v. 2.

   The gentle craft. The gentleman's trade, so called from the romance of Prince Crispin, who is said to have made shoes. It is rather remarkable that the "gentle craft" should be closely connected with our snob (q.v.).

"Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet, laureate of the gentle craft,
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in huge folios sang and laughed."
Longfellow: Nuremberg, stanza 19.

   The gentle craft. Angling. The pun is on gentle, a maggot or grub used for baiting the hook in angling.

Gentle Shepherd (The). George Grenville, the statesman, a nickname derived from a line applied to him by Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham. Grenville, in the course of one of his speeches, addressed the House interrogatively, "Tell me where? tell me where?" Pitt hummed a line of a song then very popular, "Gentle shepherd, tell me where?" and the House burst into laughter (1712-1720).

Gentleman (g soft). A translation of the French gentilhomme, one who belongs to the gens or stock. According to the Roman law, gens-men, or gentlemen, were those only who had a family name, were born of free parents, had no slave in their ancestral line, and had never been degraded to a lower rank.
   A gentleman of the four outs. A vulgar upstart, with-out manners, with-out wit, with-out money, and with- out credit.

Gentleman of Paper and Wax The first of a new line ennobled with knighthood or other dignity, to whom are given titles and coat-armour. They are made "gentlemen" by patent and a seal.

Geoffrey Crayon The hypothetical author of the Sketch Book. Washington Irving, of New York (1783- 1859).

Geology (g soft). The father of geology. William Smith (1769-1840).

Geomancy (g soft). Divining by the earth. So termed because these diviners in the sixteenth century drew on the earth their magic circles, figures, and lines. (Greek, ge, the earth; mantei'a, prophecy.)

Geometry (g soft) means land-measuring. The first geometrician was a ploughman pacing out his field. (Greek, ge, the earth; metron, a measure.)

George II was nicknamed "Prince Titi." (See Titi .)

George III was nicknamed "Farmer George," or "The Farmer King." (See Farmer.)

George IV was nicknamed "The First Gentleman of Europe," "Fum the Fourth," "Prince Florizel," "The Adonis of fifty," and "The Fat Adonis of fifty." (See each of these nicknames. )

George, Mark, John (SS.). Nostradamus wrote in 1566:

"Quand Georges Dieu crucifera,
Que Marc le ressucitera,
Et que St. Jean le portera,
La fin du monde arrivera."

In 1886 St. George's day fell on Good Friday, St. Mark's day on Easter Sunday, and St. John's day on Corpus Christi - but "the end of the world" did not then arrive.

George (St.) (g soft). Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, ii. 323, asserts that the patron saint of England was George of Cappadocia, the turbulent Arian Bishop of Alexandria, torn to pieces by the populace in 360, and revered as a saint by the opponents of Athanasius; but this assertion has been fully disproved by the Jesuit Papebroch, Milner, and others.
   That St. George is a veritable character is beyond all reasonable