country gentlemann.
/ˌkʌntrɪ ˈdʒɛntlmən/, U.S. /ˌkəntri ˈdʒɛn(t)lmən/ 1. A gentleman who lives in the country, spec. one who owns and resides in landed property.
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society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > gentry > [noun] > gentleman > landed gentleman
country gentleman1563
seigneur1775
1563 E. Grindal Let. 17 May in J. Wilson Victoria Hist. Cumberland (1905) II. 70 Take order..nott to leave the poore tenantes subiecte to the expilation of these countrey gentlemen.
1579 E. Hake Newes out of Powles Churchyarde newly Renued vi. sig. E7v Our cawtie countrey Gentlemen.
1640 R. Brome Sparagus Garden ii. iii Thou maist make a Country gentleman in time.
a1652 R. Brome Court Begger Dram. Pers. sig. N4, in Five New Playes (1653) Mr. Swaynwit, a blunt Countrey Gentleman.
1732 G. Berkeley Alciphron I. ii. xi. 95 Among Country Gentlemen, and Farmers.
1765 Memoirs Coquet 117 He was a good-humoured, roaring, honest country gentleman.
1834 Tait's Edinb. Mag. New Ser. 1 528 Farmers became country gentlemen; changing..the spattle-hoe for the riding-whip.
1880 S. Walpole Hist. Eng. III. 63 Country gentlemen who were desirous of doing a neighbour a good turn were in the habit of giving him a ‘deputation’ as a gamekeeper.
1920 A. Carnegie Autobiogr. ix. 128 One of the few Americans who then lived in the grand style of a country gentleman.
1995 Countryman Spring 107/2 William finally succeeded to the estate at Shurdington, Gloucestershire, where he lived out his last years as a country gentleman.
2. Frequently with capital initials. Originally U.S. A variety of sweetcorn with sweet, pale yellow, peg-shaped kernels.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > cereal, corn, or grain > [noun] > maize > types of
green cornc1450
flint corn1705
flint1802
sweet corna1817
squaw corn1823
dent corn1853
tassel-corn1883
country gentleman1892
1892 Man. Everything for Garden (Peter Henderson & Co.) 6 New Sweet Corn ‘Country Gentleman’... We have, by careful selection, obtained a variety which produces ears of good size and of the same delicious quality as the original.
1934 W. T. Tapley et al. Veg. New York iii. iii. 28/1 Country gentleman, a variety name which was 14 years in the coming..was introduced in 1890 by Frank C. Woodruff of S. D. Woodruff & Sons, Orange, Connecticut.
1950 New Biol. 8 37 One kind of sweet corn, called Country Gentleman, has the seeds situated irregularly on the cobs, instead of in neat rows as in most corns.
2013 Chicago Daily Herald (Nexis) 14 Apr. 1 Sweet corn varieties like Country Gentleman and Silver Cross Bantam, with tighter husks, resist earworms.
Derivatives
ˌcountry-ˈgentlemanlike adj. now rare
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1822 Morning Post 8 Mar. 2/3 Member had made use of a homely, good, country-gentlemanlike phrase, ‘that they could have no more of a cat than her skin.’
1889 J. R. Lowell Latest Ess. (1891) 78 English, which he treated with a Country-gentlemanlike familiarity.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1563