Contextualizebeta

ingenu

noun

Etymology

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

  1. derived from ingenuus — “ingenuous”
  2. borrowed from ingénu — “guileless”

Definitions

  1. 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."
    • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for ingenu. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA