different between ingenuity vs ingenue

English

Etymology

From Latin ingenuit?s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nd???n(j)u??ti/

Noun

ingenuity (usually uncountable, plural ingenuities)

1. The ability to solve difficult problems, often in original, clever, and inventive ways.
2. (now rare) Ingenuousness; honesty, straightforwardness

Related terms

• ingenious
• ingenuous

Translations

See also

• industriousness

Anagrams

• genuinity

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