Etymology

ingenue

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Today it means: An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome girl or young woman. Full definition →

French ingénue ← Latin ingenuus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromingenuus“ingenuous”
  2. French · borrowed fromingénue
  3. English todayingenue

Borrowed from French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu (“guileless”), originally from the Latin ingenuus (“ingenuous”).

Words from the same roots

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.