gentle

Gentle comes from Middle English gentil ("courteous, noble"), borrowed from Old French gentil ("high-born, noble"), which traces to Latin gentilis ("of the same family or clan"), from gens ("clan").

The word started out describing noble birth and courteous manners that supposedly came with it, and over time its sense narrowed from social rank to the softer, kinder qualities we associate with it today.

It's a doublet of gentile, genteel, and jaunty — all descended from the same Latin gens, just filtered through different paths into English.