| 词组 | ingenious, ingenuous, ingenuity |
| 释义 | ingenious, ingenuous, ingenuity Confusion of ingenious and ingenuous is not now much of a problem, but the distinction between these words was not so widely observed several centuries ago. Ingenious is the older word, having been borrowed from French in the 1400s. It is derived from the Latin ingeniosus, which means "talented, clever." Ingenuous was first used in English in the late 1500s. The Latin source from which it arose is ingenuus, "native, free born." Both words have developed several senses since their first use in English, but the fundamental meaning of ingenious has always been "clever": • ... the plot is ingenious and the going is good-humored —New Yorker, 1 May 1971 • ... an ingenious method of checking errors —W. David Gardner, Datamation, June 1982 Ingenuous had some early use in the sense "noble or honorable," but its primary use in English has been to describe a person or personality characterized by frankness and openness, owing either to good character or— now more often—innocence: • ... the jolly, disarming, ingenuous friendliness of this farm boy —Johns Hopkins Mag., Summer 1967 • ... his frankness of expression, his ingenuous American informality —William F. Buckley, Jr., Cosmopolitan, October 1976 The OED shows that, in addition to their customary and distinct uses, ingenious and ingenuous were used fairly regularly as synonyms for many years: • Our Lord having heard this ingenious confession — William Beveridge, Sermons, ca. 1680 (OED) • If their Sonnes be ingenuous, they shall want no instruction —Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, 1595 (OED) It may be that the publication in 1755 of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, in which these synonymous uses are not recognized, had something to do with establishing ingenious and ingenuous as distinct words. For whatever reason, they appear to have ceased being used as synonyms by about 1800. Many 20th-century usage commentators warn that these words are often confused, but we have only two clear examples of such confusion in our files: • "But are they fair?" she asked ingeniously —Rose Macaulay, Potterism, 1920 • ... by developing ingenuous new devices and methods, which greatly increased efficiency —Sidney L. Pressey, in Addresses on Current Issues in Higher Education, 1951 And even these may simply be typographical errors rather than the product of authorial confusion. A related subject is the history of the noun ingenuity. Ingenuity is derived from ingenuous, but its meaning is "the quality or state of being ingenious": • ... substituting technical ingenuity for a lack of good musical material —Peter Hellman, Cosmopolitan, January 1973 • ... the tenacity and ingenuity of Vermont hill farmers —N.Y. Times, 21 Aug. 1983 Ingenuity acquired this sense in the 17th century, when ingenuous and ingenious were being used as synonyms. It was sufficiently well-established in the 18th century for Johnson to include it in his Dictionary, and for Baker 1770 to disapprove of it: "It is a considerable Blemish in our Language, that the Word Ingenuity has two Senses; for hereby it often becomes unintelligible." Baker wanted ingenuity to be used only in its older "ingenuous" sense, and he suggested that ingeniety be adopted as the noun of ingenious. He was fighting a battle already lost, however. The older sense of ingenuity had already been largely superseded by ingenuousness in Baker's time. It is now obsolete. |
| 随便看 |
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。