different between ingenuous vs ingenue

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ingenuus (“of noble character, frank”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?d??n.ju.?s/

Adjective

ingenuous (comparative more ingenuous, superlative most ingenuous)

1. Naive and trusting.
2. Demonstrating childlike simplicity.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 12

     "Do you mean to say you didn't leave your wife for another woman?"

     "Of course not."

     "On your word of honour?"

     I don't know why I asked for that. It was very ingenuous of me.

3. Unsophisticated; clumsy or obvious.
4. Unable to mask one's feelings.
5. Straightforward, candid, open, and frank.

Usage notes

Do not confuse with ingenious.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:naive

Antonyms

• disingenuous

Translations

Anagrams

• unigenous

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