Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome girl or young woman.
  • noun A dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

  • As always, the ingenue was a docile, saintly (with one slip) place-holder, but Elena Shaddow, who was the girl in The Light in the Piazza did her level best with her, and has a lovely, clear voice.

    Fanny deliasherman 2010

  • As always, the ingenue was a docile, saintly (with one slip) place-holder, but Elena Shaddow, who was the girl in The Light in the Piazza did her level best with her, and has a lovely, clear voice.

    Fanny deliasherman 2010

  • But you can bet they're wishing that their ingenue was a little less ripe and a lot more bashful:

    Snow What? A Too Ripe Star. 2008

  • Fifty years ago, that stage was the Met, the opera was Don Giovanni, and the ingenue was a 19-year-old soprano from the Bronx, Roberta Peters.

    Remarks At Presentation Of Medal Of The Arts Ceremony ITY National Archives 1998

  • For me, getting away from playing the ingenue is a tremendous relief, because they're so shallow and they have no texture or depth, no lines to their face, and as a result they can be rather bland.

    WalesOnline - Home 2011

  • All exquisite, pineapple pants included, but the Laker's hat "ingenue" gets the prize!

    sweating to the oldies 2008

  • As with Gestalt psychology's famous figure of the vase that is also two faces in profile, or the "ingenue" who can turn into a "hag," the alternative reading lurks — and becomes startlingly obvious once the figure-ground system is reversed though a perceptual shift.

    'Put to the Blush': Romantic Irregularities and Sapphic Tropes 2006

  • From several her lines, it's clear that in many ways she still sees herself as some kind of ingenue, even though she's in her early forties.

    Archive 2007-09-01 Elizabeth Kerri Mahon 2007

  • Only there will be a new 'ingenue' in Miss Malone's place.

    Harlequin and Columbine Booth Tarkington 1907

  • Alice Eve, the kind of ingenue who makes your socks go up and down.

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local < 2010

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