It's a bit hilarious that gent is, etymologically, feminine.
It's short for "gentleman", which is an anglicised version of "gentilhomme" in French: gentil homme literally gentle man. Gentil comes from the Latin gentilis itself derived from gens, which really means species and is feminine. Closer to now, we have "la gent' in French or "la gente" in Spanish: "people".
So when you shorten gentlemen to gents, you are shortening it to the ultimately feminine part of the word, which means people.
αxel simon :pride_heart:
npub12l…dqltd
2026-06-26 14:12:43 UTC
Author Public Key
npub12lx506dleguxf52tdwfjmm63lq6rkv4d3v7g7usrehztdwmh6uhsddqltdSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-06-26 14:12:43 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "6a85974b4663b5db360416404b9f29293b3d9bc0adb92b08b38902bfdaba9664",
"pubkey": "57cd47e9bfca3864d14b6b932def51f8343b32ad8b3c8f7203cdc4b6bb77d72f",
"created_at": 1782483163,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://mstdn.fr/@axx/116816816632418420",
"web"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mstdn.fr/users/axx/statuses/116816816632418420",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://mstdn.fr/users/axx/statuses/116816816632418420",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "It's a bit hilarious that gent is, etymologically, feminine.\n\nIt's short for \"gentleman\", which is an anglicised version of \"gentilhomme\" in French: gentil homme literally gentle man. Gentil comes from the Latin gentilis itself derived from gens, which really means species and is feminine. Closer to now, we have \"la gent' in French or \"la gente\" in Spanish: \"people\".\n\nSo when you shorten gentlemen to gents, you are shortening it to the ultimately feminine part of the word, which means people.",
"sig": "34577a65da123cbf34f31bfbae5c9e5d3204b1989c173733d797385ed86b9192bd399bd045f7a028a57066793d2206d97520918ca40043f3fe96da7ccfb220e4"
}