ingenu
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Even a casual reader of the philosophic tale will have met, in the array of types on parade-an oft-repeated "naïf" (who was anything but naive), at least one famed "candide," and several "ingénus.""
- "Swift, it might be noted, has used this technique, but with "reverse English." Instead of a fine central intelligence, he has set up at the core of his work his favorite ingénu, an "I" who egregiously identifies himself with the very abuses that Swift is attacking."
- "The trouble still lies, as it did in the Happy Valley, in the mental ineptitude and moral weakness of the characters. This is the target throughout the story, as mere ingénu and mere academic split time after time on the rock of reality."
- "You seem pleasant and harmless with your dark ingenu eyes and your nice Midwestern manners."
- "And ... he examines ingénus like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield whose lives Dickens renders as patterns of self-growth towards moral health."
- "The innocent childlike nature of the Ingenu is perhaps his most obvious and charming characteristic and has been much noted. ... But actual children are rare among the Ingenus ...."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ingenuus