Ingenu
Alternative forms
- Ingenu, ingénu
Origin
From the French word ingénu (meaning “guilelessâ€), especially as used by Voltaire in , originally from the Latin word ingenuus (meaning “ingenuousâ€)
Full definition of ingenu
Noun
ingenu
(plural ingenus)- An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome boy or young man.
- 1946, The Conte Philosphique Evolves Its SolitaireEven 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."
- 1951, Swift's Tale of a Tub: An Essay in Problems of StructureSwift, 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.
- 1961, "Rasselas" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes"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.
- 1975, wYou seem pleasant and harmless with your dark ingenu eyes and your nice Midwestern manners.
- 1975, review of Joseph Gold Charles Dickens: Radical MoralistAnd ... he examines ingénus like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield whose lives Dickens renders as patterns of self-growth towards moral health.
- 1991, Satire: Spirit and AirThe 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 ....
- 2003, Juan Francisco Elices Agudo, Fifty Years of English Studies in Spain (1952-2002): A Commemorative Volume Chapter The Role of the Ingenu in the Construction of a Postcolonial Anti-War Satire: Ken Saro-Wiwa's SozaboyFor his novel, Saro-Wiwa draws on the figure of the ingenu in order to satirise the evils and pettiness of war from an apparently naïve perspective, which conceals the biting criticism that prevails throughout the narration.