different between ingenu vs ingenue

English

Alternative forms

• ingénu

Etymology

From French ingénu (“guileless”), especially as used by Voltaire in L'Ingénu, from Latin ingenuus (“ingenuous”).

Noun

ingenu (plural ingenus)

1. (rare) An innocent, unsophisticated, naive, wholesome boy or young man.

   • Even a casual reader of the philosophic tale will have met, in the array of types on parade-an oft-repeated "naïf" (who was anything but naive), at least one famed "candide," and several "ingénus."

   • Swift, it might be noted, has used this technique, but with "reverse English." Instead of a fine central intelligence, he has set up at the core of his work his favorite ingénu, an "I" who egregiously identifies himself with the very abuses that Swift is attacking.

   • The trouble still lies, as it did in the Happy Valley, in the mental ineptitude and moral weakness of the characters. This is the target throughout the story, as mere ingénu and mere academic split time after time on the rock of reality.

   • You seem pleasant and harmless with your dark ingenu eyes and your nice Midwestern manners.

   • And ... he examines ingénus like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield whose lives Dickens renders as patterns of self-growth towards moral health.

   • The innocent childlike nature of the Ingenu is perhaps his most obvious and charming characteristic and has been much noted. ... But actual children are rare among the Ingenus ....

   • For his novel, Saro-Wiwa draws on the figure of the ingenu in order to satirise the evils and pettiness of war from an apparently naïve perspective, which conceals the biting criticism that prevails throughout the narration.

Antonyms

• homme fatale

Related terms

• ingenue, ingenuous

Anagrams

• gunnie, inguen

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin ingenuus.

Adjective

ingenu (feminine ingènua, masculine plural ingenus, feminine plural ingènues)

1. naive

Derived terms

• ingènuament

Related terms

• ingenuïtat

Further reading

• “ingenu” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “ingenu” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “ingenu” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “ingenu” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

English

Alternative forms

• ingénue

Etymology

Borrowed from French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu (“guileless”), originally from the Latin ingenuus (“ingenuous”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??n??nu/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?æn?e??nju?/

Noun

ingenue (plural ingenues)

1. An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome girl or young woman.
2. (theater, film) A dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role.

   Hypernym: stock character

   Coordinate terms: girl next door, femme fatale, damsel in distress

   • 2012, Thomas Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969, McFarland (?ISBN), page 396:

     The intelligent and talented blonde who was fluent in English, French and Spanish was interested in art and joined a local theater group to work on set designs but wound up on stage playing an ingenue in Liliom and was spotted by director Vincente Minnelli.

3. (rare) Misspelling of ingenu.

Usage notes

The corresponding masculine term, ingenu, is poorly known, and so the feminine term is sometimes used in a gender-neutral or masculine way. (See the 2002 citation, where the explicit masculine French is feminized in English.)

Related terms

• ingenu, ingenuous

Translations

Further reading

• ingénue on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Guienne, eugenin, genuine, unigene

Italian

Adjective

ingenue f pl

1. feminine plural of ingenuo

Noun

ingenue f

1. plural of ingenua

Anagrams

• genuine

Latin

Adjective

ingenue

1. vocative masculine singular of ingenuus

References

• ingenue in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ingenue in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ingenue in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette