disingenuous

WOTD - 11 June 2008    

English

Etymology

dis- +‎ ingenuous

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˌdɪs.ɪn.ˈdʒɛn.ju.əs/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

disingenuous (comparative more disingenuous, superlative most disingenuous)

1. Not noble; unbecoming true honor or dignity; mean; unworthy; fake or deceptive.
2. Not ingenuous; not frank or open; uncandid; unworthily or meanly artful.
   • 1726, William Broome, The Poems of Alexander Pope: The Odyssey of Homer. Books XIII-XXIV, edited by Maynard Mack, Methuen, 1969, volume 10, page 378:

     I am not so vain as to think these Remarks free from faults, nor so disingenuous as not to confess them:

3. Assuming a pose of naivete to make a point or for deception.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "disingenuous" is often applied: attempt, argument, statement, conduct, people, excuse, question.

Derived terms

• disingenuously
• disingenuousness

Translations

not noble; unbecoming true honor

Chinese: Mandarin: 虛情假意的 (zh), 虚情假意的 (zh) (xūqíngjiǎyì de), 不誠實的 (zh), 不诚实的 (zh) (bù chéngshí de) Esperanto: insidema (eo) Finnish: petollinen (fi), vilpillinen (fi) French: sournois (fr)

German: unaufrichtig (de) Japanese: 不誠実な (ja) (ふせいじつな, fuseijitsu-na) Macedonian: неискрен (mk) (néiskren) m. Russian: неискренний (ru) (neískrennij) Spanish: falso (es), poco sincero (es) Swedish: lömsk (sv)

External links

• disingenuous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• disingenuous in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• disingenuous at OneLook Dictionary Search