gentle

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gentle1

▶adjective (gentler, gentlest)

• 1 mild and kind in temperament or character.

• 2 moderate in effect or degree: a gentle breeze.

• 3 archaic noble or courteous.

▶verb make or become gentle.

■ touch gently.

– derivatives
gentleness noun,
gently adverb.

– origin ME: from OFr. gentil ‘high-born, noble’, from L. gentilis (see gentile).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gentle2

▶noun Fishing a maggot, especially the larva of a blowfly, used as bait.

– origin C16: prob. from an obs. sense of gentle1, ‘soft, pliant’.