ingenue

See also: ingénue

English

WOTD – 17 September 2007

Alternative forms

• ingénue

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑnʒənu/
• IPA^(key): /ˌænʒeɪˈnjuː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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) An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome person.
   • 1951 June 11, Harold L. Ickes, “Acheson, Political Ingenue”, in The New Republic, volume 124, number 24, page 17:

     Mr. Acheson's failure as Secretary of State ... has been an inability to understand people or to be understood by them.

   • 2002 Spring, Joshua David Gonsalves, “What Makes Lord Byron Go? Strong Determinations-Public/Private-of Imperial Errancy”, in Studies in Romanticism, volume 41, number 1, Psychoanalytic, page 40fn:

     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])

   • 2006 September, Kevin McFadden, “It's a Cue, the Name”, in Poetry, volume 188, number 5, page 417:

     America why callow ingenue bile?

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

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

• Russian: инженю (ru) (inženju)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Further reading

• ingénue on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Guienne, eugenin, genuine, unigene

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Italian

Adjective

ingenue f pl

1. feminine plural of ingenuo

Noun

ingenue f

1. plural of ingenua

Anagrams

• genuine

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Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) 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.