The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ingenuous \In*gen"u*ous\, a. [L. ingenuus inborn, innate, freeborn, noble, frank; pref. in- in + the root of gignere to beget. See Genius, and cf. Ingenious.]
Of honorable extraction; freeborn; noble; as, ingenuous blood of birth.
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Noble; generous; magnanimous; honorable; upright; high-minded; as, an ingenuous ardor or zeal.
If an ingenuous detestation of falsehood be but carefully and early instilled, that is the true and genuine method to obviate dishonesty.
--Locke. -
Free from reserve, disguise, equivocation, or dissimulation; open; frank; as, an ingenuous man; an ingenuous declaration, confession, etc.
Sensible in myself . . . what a burden it is for me, who would be ingenuous, to be loaded with courtesies which he hath not the least hope to requite or deserve.
--Fuller. -
Ingenious. [Obs.]
--Shak.Note: (Formerly) printers did not discriminate between . . . ingenuous and ingenious, and these words were used or rather printed interchangeably almost to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
--G. P. Marsh.Syn: Open; frank; unreserved; artless; plain; sincere; candid; fair; noble; generous.
Usage: Ingenuous, Open, Frank. One who is open speaks out at once what is uppermost in his mind; one who is frank does it from a natural boldness, or dislike of self-restraint; one who is ingenuous is actuated by a native simplicity and artlessness, which make him willing to confess faults, and make known his sentiments without reserve. See Candid.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, "noble in nature," from Latin ingenuus "with the virtues of freeborn people, of noble character, frank, upright, candid," originally "native, freeborn," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + gen-, root of gignere "beget, produce" (see genus). Sense of "artless, innocent" is 1670s, via evolution from "high-minded" to "honorably open, straightforward," to "innocently frank." Related: Ingenuously; ingenuousness.
Wiktionary
a. 1 naive and trusting. 2 Demonstrating childlike simplicity. 3 unsophisticated; simple. 4 unable to mask one's feelings. 5 straightforward, candid, open, and frank.
WordNet
adj. characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious; "an ingenuous admission of responsibility" [syn: artless] [ant: disingenuous]
lacking in sophistication or worldliness; "a child's innocent stare"; "his ingenuous explanation that he would not have burned the church if he had not thought the bishop was in it" [syn: innocent]
Usage examples of "ingenuous".
Art blurted out his doings, his thoughts, in a completely honest, ingenuous manner that irritated those social groups who prefer conversational sparring and the artfully phoney commercial facades.
She expressed however an ingenuous diffidence of her capacity for the task of an instructor, and she intreated at any rate to be permitted to withdraw for a short time to dry up the tears of her disconsolate parents.
First the tentative withdrawal, and now the ingenuous response, was more erotic than any flagrant vice of the most skilled lover.
The scout looked earnestly into the beautiful face of Mabel, which had flushed with the ardor and novelty of her sensations, and it was not possible to mistake the intense admiration that betrayed itself in every lineament of his ingenuous countenance.
Just by himself, Roger Lowry was a spectacle to catch the eye and hold it, with his fine, noble head, his mane of pale-gold hair, his ingenuous stare, and his six feet six inches of poised herculean brawn.
As he rode off on Cavalier after watching Oriflamme leave hoofmarks across half the Duckmanton south lawn, Jack cursed himself for an idiot for not taking the child up on her ingenuous offer.
So much merely to counteract our ingenuous tendency to believe that a superabundance of resources favours existence.
Accustomed to the ingenuous habits of the sensitive being at his side, the Bravo studied her speaking features intently.
She had fallen to ingenuous surprise, and Mallard again laughed, partly at the simplicity of the question, partly because it pleased him to have brought her to such directness.
Miss Mannering was far from a beauty, but she had a fresh and wholesome look about her, and her ingenuous manner could not help but appeal.
As a rule her manner to the servants and her inferiors was cold and haughty, but, as Stafford had discovered last night, she could be soft and gentle when she chose, and she smiled now at Pottinger and the horse in a fashion that almost dazzled that ingenuous youth.
And, further, she genuinely did cause him to feel that throughout his career he had always missed the very best things of life, through being an uncherished, ingenuous, easily satisfied man.
Ivan asked in a voice suddenly quite soft, quite unirritated now, in which suddenly the most ingenuous curiosity could be heard.
Recollecting however the pure manners, and the delicate and ingenuous language to which Imogen had been inured among the inhabitants of Clwyd, the subtle sorcerer did not permit an expression to escape him, that could offend the chastest ear, or alarm the most suspicious virtue.
She contemplates you now with somewhat less of horror, and with a virtuous and ingenuous fear of uncandidness and injustice upon your account.