gentrice

/ˈd͡ʒɛntɹɪs/

Etymology

From Middle English gentryse, from Old French genterise, variant form of gentelise, from gentil.

Why this word is great

GENTRICE — [Noun] The state or quality of being high-born; gentility, or high-born individuals collectively. From Middle English gentryse, via Old French genterise, a variant of gentelise, rooted in gentil ("noble, high-born"). Unlike "nobility" (which denotes titled aristocracy) or "gentility" (which implies cultivated manners), gentrice is the unearned, immutable fact of bloodline—the quiet assurance of a name inked in old parish registers, the ancestral portrait hanging askew in a decaying manor, the way a surname alone can open doors rusted shut to others. It is birthright as architecture: weighty, silent, and indifferent to those outside its walls.

noun

The state or quality of being high-born; gentility.““And where could I get a horse to him?” cried Alan, turning on her with the same appearance of fury. “Would ye have me steal?” […] “Ye neednae tell me,” she said at last—“ye’re gentry.” “Well,” said Alan, softened a little (I believe against his will) by this artless comment, “and suppose we were? Did ever you hear that gentrice put money in folk’s pockets?””
High-born individuals collectively; gentry.“Where she came from no man could tell. There were some said she was no woman, but a ghost haunting some mortal tenement. Others would threep she was gentrice, come of a persecuting family in the west, who had been ruined in the Revolution wars.”