Ingenuous
/ɪnˈdʒɛnjʊəs/noun
Open, honest, and innocent in manner; lacking worldliness or craft.
Did you know?Ingenuous comes from the Latin *ingenuus*, originally describing someone “freeborn” — a status word tied to birth, not intelligence, before it drifted into innocence and sincerity.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ǵenh₁-
“to beget, give birth”
Latin
Latin
genus
“birth, race, stock, kind”
Latin
Latin
ingenuus
“freeborn, native, natural; later, candid, frank”
Late Latin
Latin
ingenuus
“innocent, frank, straightforward”
Middle French
Old French
ingénu
“naive, candid, unsophisticated”
Late 16th Century
English
ingenuous
“freeborn; noble by birth; later, candid and sincere”