Words that are commonly confused

Ingenuous/ ingenious

The adjective ingenuous means as innocent and unsuspecting as a child. Someone who is ingenuous is trusting and naïve, in the way a baby might be. The term ingenuous derives from a Latin term meaning the way someone was born. So if they are ingenuous, that means they are the same as when they were born, and not changed by experience. Often this word is used in the less admiring adjective disingenuous. That refers to someone who is not ingenuous or sincere. People who are disingenuous may pretend to know less than what they really do know about a subject. Disingenuous also means dishonest and false and hypocritical. It is a way to call someone a liar while using a big word.

The adjective ingenious is used to describe someone who is clever, original, and inventive. It originates from a Latin term meaning full of intellect and clever. Someone or something that is ingenious is gifted with genius. As we see, it is usually a compliment to be called ingenious. It can be a nice thing to be considered ingenuous, although not always. If adult thinking is needed, it may not be the best thing to have a childlike approach. It is never nice to be thought of as disingenuous. Since these three words have such different meanings, it is important to avoid confusing them. One way not to mix them up might be to remember the phrase:

Someone or something that is ingenious is filled with genius.

Even though the words ingenious and genius have different spellings, they sound similar. The letter i found in the middle of both ingenious and genius may make us think of the word intelligence, which is needed for someone or something to be ingenious.

If we recall that the word with the letter i in the middle refers to intelligence, then the word ingenuous, with no letter i in the middle, may be safely assumed to have the other meaning, of baby-like innocence. From ingenuous, it is easy to add the letters dis to arrive at disingenuous, to describe people or things that are not ingenuous.

Some usage examples:

• He looked at her with wide, ingenuous eyes.
• He has, indeed, a true love of England, sometimes not without a suspicion of insularity, but always fresh and ingenuous.
• The ingenuous faith of a Louis IX.
• Pet registration will not solve stray-dog problem. Your editorial is somewhat disingenuous in using a picture of an old cat (“Pet registration fee will come back to bite us”, October 13-14). This unfortunate cat is unlikely to ever be rescued as the so-called “rescue” groups are far more interested in man’s biggest enemy – the vile canine.
• Trump’s sins are legion. Eric Bahrt overreaches his capabilities, and not for the first time. When he states that Donald Trump’s biggest lie is his disingenuous stance on the Iraq war, he ignores far more serious howlers about, for example, Iranian traitors and emails, and Russia.
• In 1978, the Constitution was amended to read: “In other respects, the powers, privileges and immunities of each House of Parliament…shall be such as may from time to time be defined by Parliament by law and until so defined shall be those of that House and of its members and committee immediately before coming into force of Section 15 of the Constitution (44th Amendment) Act, 1978.” This was a disingenuous ploy to remove the reference to the House of Commons without in any way changing the import of the constitutional provision but one that ensured a person not possessing a pre-1978 copy of the Constitution would be utterly clueless about the privileges that legislators enjoy. While ignorance of a law is no defence, obfuscation on such a massive scale might well overturn even that settled proposition.
• The Outer Space Treaty that the professor suggests should be “revised by the UN to plug loopholes and prevent military activities … to ensure no claims are made to outer space or celestial bodies” is obviously the most disingenuous of suggestions.
• I know her heart is in the right place, but banging on about her obsession helps nobody, especially when she disingenuously offers up these statements. I further suggest that Ms Moxham leaves us omnivores to get on with it, and refrain from pointless attempts at proselytising. Sure I absolutely agree that she has the right to air her views here like the rest of us, but that’s beside the point with this. I also wonder if she isn’t prepared to persuade other “natural” and “intelligent” predators to go veggie, too. On reflection, she might also wish to ponder plant rights too – the vegetable kingdom is living matter!
• Cities have layers of heritage that are either chipped away and discarded by development or restored and revived for a newer generation to absorb. Disingenuous sameness chips away and discards; it doesn’t restore or revive. And so, perhaps the only place left to look for these layers is in the people.
• What stands out though, even as a multinational rescue team began extraction operations yesterday, is the care, the empathy and emotions, bravery, sacrifice and the ingenious use of technology to actually save human lives, as we await the outcome of the rescue mission. We in Thailand and the world over need to be reminded of “caring responsibility”. We need to be reminded that the world and all its allurements and dangers in relation to nature will cherish caring, particularly for the responsibilities we face as enlightened individuals in our common home, the Earth. The rescue efforts in Chiang Rai recall a sobering truth from Saint Teresa of Calcutta: “The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray.”
• Beijing’s ingenious strategy to control China Sea: build islands. Having missed out on the prime real estate, China is constructing its own. What do you do when all the seats are taken? The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia control real islands in the South China Sea. “China came very late to this party and missed out on all the good real estate,” writes the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in a report last week headlined “China’s Island Factory”. So, Beijing is creating new islands of its own. Beijing today seeks “to dominate sea-space within the first island chain”, Wingfield-Hayes writes. That chain runs from Borneo’s coast, past Taiwan, to southern Japan. It is, in Beijing’s opinion, China’s backyard.
• ‘Building block’ computer gets better. The ingenious Revo Build from Acer deserves all the awards it has won. The compact personal computer you “build” yourself, the award-winning Revo Build from Acer, has been upgraded as the M2-601, also designated 614G5000i.
• “You can also see XPANDER’s SUV heritage in the flared, muscular fenders, the top-level ground clearance, and maximum waterproofing. The All-New Mitsubishi XPANDER has been designed to handle Thailand’s rainy season or any season. This spacious new crossover also offers a quality experience with many, many conveniences. Every detail is ingeniously designed for driving confidence and  Mitsubishi design is much more than good looks. Our mission is aimed at designing a total  experience,” added Mr. Kunimoto.
• London (AFP) – The inventor behind James Bond’s ingenious gadgets, codenamed “Q” in the spy films, exists in reality and is actually a woman, the head of Britain’s MI6 espionage agency has said. “The real-life Q is looking forward to meeting you, and I’m pleased to report that the real-life Q is a woman,” Alex Younger said at a women’s technology awards ceremony this week in London.
• Inspired by Japan’s so-called Jomon period, during which people lived primitively yet ingeniously, Homme Pliss Issey Miyake has created an exciting and challenging collection for the coming season to match the contemporary lifestyle. Taking inspiration from the ornaments and patterns seen on the Jomon pottery, which is representative of this period’s culture, a series of fascinating patterns and stripes are realised by using rope-cord and clay according to the manufacturing method of the era. The vibrant dynamic color palette is also inspired by the pottery, or more specifically, the fiery, flame and swirling water-like style techniques.

 

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)