Word of the Day

: August 15, 2008

innocuous

adjective ih-NAH-kyuh-wus

What It Means

1 : producing no injury : harmless

2 : not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility : inoffensive, insipid

innocuous in Context

Bella was surprised when her seemingly innocuous remark enraged her classmates.

Did You Know?

"Innocuous" has harmful roots -- it comes to us from the Latin adjective "innocuus," which was formed by combining the negative prefix "in-" with a form of the verb "nocēre," meaning "to harm" or "to hurt." In addition, "nocēre" is related to the truly "harmful" words "noxious," "nocent," and even "nocuous." "Innocent" is from "nocēre" as well, although like "innocuous" it has the "in-" prefix negating the hurtful possibilities. "Innocuous" first appeared in print the early 17th century with the clearly Latin-derived meaning "harmless or causing no injury" (as in "an innocuous gas"). The second sense is a metaphorical extension of the idea of injury, used to indicate that someone or something does not cause hurt feelings, or even strong feelings ("an innocuous book" or "innocuous issues," for example).