Show IT IS NOT SLANG alie term gent and its modern application the word gent nowadays seems to wear its hat cocked on one side of the licad and to walk with a caddish swagger of vulgar ar self importance but I 1 know a worthy old lady in the country writes edward eggleston in century who calls her husband the old gent aing it as a title of respect and such it was in her childhood and long before in 1754 rev samuel davies afterward president of princeton college traveling in england describes rev dr lardner as a little pert old gent epithets that would not be flattering to a minister today to day nor even dignified for a minister to use pert here has the sense of lively much as a kentuckian might use peart or a new englander England cr perk indeed I 1 suspect that davies gave the word the sound of peart that davies used gent as a term of respect is i s by his characterization of another reverend doctor as a venerable humble and affectionate old gent it will not do therefore to account a word recent because of its slanginess when a smoker professes fondness for tha weed he doc docs s not dream that he is using un epithet applied to by kins james I 1 in and that nearly two hundred years earlier than james in alic reign of edward VI the hop plant just coming into england was called the wicked weed what plant had v orn this title of contempt before the hop I 1 do not know |