different between ingenu vs ingeny

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

• ingenie

Etymology

From Latin ingenium. See ingenious.

Noun

ingeny

1. (obsolete) natural gift or talent; ability; wit; ingenuity
   • 1683, Richard Baxter, Dying Thoughts

     it [God's mercy] chose me suitable company and habitation; it gave me betimes a teachable ingeny