ingenue

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The Word of the Day for December 13 is:=20

ingenue   \AN-juh-noo\   noun
          1 : a naive girl or young woman=20
    *2 : the stage role of an ingenue; also: an actress playing such a r=
ole

Example sentence:
          When she was younger, the actress was often typecast as the in=
genue who is unwittingly pursued by several adoring men.

Did you know?
     Although Becky Sharp, the ambitious heroine of William Makepeace Th=
ackeray's 1848 novel _Vanity Fair_, is not usually thought of as innocen=
t or na=C3=AFve, the first recorded use of "ingenue" in English does ref=
er to her. Thackeray's use was attributive: "When attacked sometimes, Be=
cky had a knack of adopting a demure ingenue air, under which she was mo=
st dangerous." The word "ingenue" typically refers to someone who is inn=
ocent to the ways of the world, so you probably won't be too surprised t=
o learn that it shares an ancestor, Latin "ingenuus," with "ingenuous," =
a word meaning "showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness.=
" More directly, our "ingenue" comes from French "ingenue," the feminine=
 form of "ingenu," meaning "ingenuous."=20





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