[Footnote 55: Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman,
two etymologies are produced: 1. From the Barbarians of the
fifth century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of
the Roman empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility;
and 2. From the sense of the civilians, who consider
gentilis as synonymous with ingenuus. Selden inclines to
the first but the latter is more pure, as well as probable.]