English

Noun

ingenue ‎(plural ingenues)

1. An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome girl or young woman.
2. A dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role.
3. (rare) An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome person.
   • 1951 June 11, Ickes, Harold L., “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, Gonsalves, Joshua David, “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, McFadden, Kevin, “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.)

Antonyms

• femme fatale

Related terms

• ingenu, ingenuous

Translations

Anagrams

• genuine
• Guienne

Italian

Adjective

ingenue f pl

1. feminine plural of ingenuo

Noun

ingenue f

1. plural of ingenua

Anagrams

• genuine

Latin

Adjective

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
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “ingenue”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.