Word of the Day

: December 13, 2007

ingenue

noun AN-juh-noo

What It Means

1 : a naïve girl or young woman

2 : the stage role of an ingenue; also: an actress playing such a role

ingenue in Context

When she was younger, the actress was often typecast as the ingenue who is unwittingly pursued by several adoring men.

Did You Know?

Although Becky Sharp, the ambitious heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel Vanity Fair, is not usually thought of as innocent or naïve, the first recorded use of "ingenue" in English does refer to her. Thackeray's use was attributive: "When attacked sometimes, Becky had a knack of adopting a demure ingenue air, under which she was most dangerous." The word "ingenue" typically refers to someone who is innocent to the ways of the world, so you probably won't be too surprised to learn that it shares an ancestor, Latin "ingenuus," with "ingenuous," a word meaning "showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness." More directly, our "ingenue" comes from French "ingénue," the feminine form of "ingénu," meaning "ingenuous."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.