Contextualizebeta

ingenue

noun
/ˈɑnʒənu/US/ˌænʒeɪˈnjuː/UK

Etymology

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

  1. derived from ingenuus
  2. borrowed from ingénue

Definitions

  1. An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome girl or young woman.

    • Near-synonym: girl next door

  2. A dramatic role of such a woman

    A dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role.

  3. Misspelling of ingenu.

    • Mr. Acheson's failure as Secretary of State ... has been an inability to understand people or to be understood by them.
    • I cannot resist citing, slightly out of context, another bit of Baudelaire: "Satan s'est fait ingénu" (Satan has made himself into an ingenue [Oeuvres Completes 640])
    • America why callow ingenue bile?

The neighborhood

Derived

mangenue

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for ingenue. 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