When was the phrase gentleman of fortune first said?
Executive summary
The short answer: authoritative sources disagree; Collins reports the phrase “gentleman of fortune” as first recorded in 1880–85 [1], while a range of dictionaries and usage notes treat the expression as older and classical in meaning, often equating it with “adventurer” or a euphemism for “pirate” [2] [3] [4]. The available reporting does not supply a single primary-source citation that definitively pins the very first utterance of the phrase.
1. What the major dictionaries say about first use
Collins’ entry explicitly gives a narrow first-recorded period — 1880–85 — presenting that span as the origin point for the lexical entry in its database [1]. By contrast, Merriam‑Webster and several online dictionaries treat the phrase as a straightforward synonym for “adventurer” without offering a dated first citation in the snippets available here [2] [5] [6], which leaves Collins’ precise dating isolated among the sources provided.
2. Evidence the phrase was in earlier circulation
Several reference excerpts and usage notes collected in the reporting show “gentleman of fortune” used in contexts that seem older than the 1880s: Dictionary.com reproduces historical examples linking the phrase to 18th‑century figures (for example a reference to someone born in 1716 described as “son of a gentleman of fortune”) and other period usages appear in its illustrative quotations [7]. Independent dictionary-type pages and phrase glosses call it “formerly” a label for a man who sought his fortune in dangerous pursuits, suggesting the term circulated well before the late 19th century [3].
3. How the meaning shaped claims about age
The semantic profile of the phrase helps explain why commentators read it back into older texts: several sources identify “gentleman of fortune” as an euphism for pirate or highwayman and as a dated label for adventurers living by their wits [8] [4]. Because the idea of a “gentleman of fortune” — a social gentleman turned adventurer or pirate — fits narratives from the 17th–19th centuries, readers and some reference works treat it as an older idiom even when lexicographers date an authoritative first-recorded instance later [8] [3].
4. Why there’s no definitive “first said” in the reporting
None of the supplied sources produces a primary‑source quotation that an editor has marked as the absolute first occurrence in print (for example an OED citation from a specific year and work), and Collins’ 1880–85 claim stands as a dictionary‑database timestamp rather than a reproduced first‑use quotation [1]. The reporting therefore shows a methodological gap: lexicographical first‑record claims can differ depending on which corpora and historical newspapers a dictionary has digitized, and the present file of sources lacks the OED or archival proof that would settle the question conclusively.
5. Balanced conclusion and what can be said with confidence
It is accurate to report that Collins lists the phrase’s first recorded period as 1880–85 [1], and equally accurate to report that multiple dictionaries and usage notes define it as an adventurer or euphemistic pirate and present examples suggesting earlier usage [2] [3] [4] [7]. What cannot be claimed on the basis of the provided reporting is the exact moment or text in which the phrase was “first said”; that requires access to primary historic corpora or the OED’s full citation set, which are not included among the supplied sources.