Ingenuine Isn’t a Word?
Whiskey tango foxtrot. I’ve been using ‘ingenuine’ for years. I’ve apparently used it nine times on this site. And yesterday my spell checker indicated that it wasn’t a word. Poppycock! I checked Dictionary.com. Nope. I checked Merriam-Webster. Nada. I even visited the bookshelf and checked my massive (steady, steady) OED. No joy.
Clearly I’m a buffoon. What is the appropriate antonym to ‘genuine’? Ungenuine? Agenuine? Nongenuine? No such version of ‘genuine’ exists. This antonym finder suggests ‘insincere’.
Google has a mere 19,100 mentions of the non-word. Just me and 19,000 other illiterates, I imagine.
What other words do I use that don’t actually exist? Bogosity (thank you, Joe)? Awesomeified? Automagical? The list goes on.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Counterfeit?
http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/not%20genuine
March 28th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
ingenuine isn’t a word but ingenuous is.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Bernie: Yeah, I mean the other meaning of genuine, as ‘truthful’.
Gar: I thought of that, but I think it means something else:
ingenuous adj
1. innocent and unworldly: showing innocence and a lack of worldly experience
2. seeming honest: appearing honest and direct
March 28th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
I thought the antonym was disingenuous. But maybe it’s just ingenuous, as per commenter #2. Gah! Apparently I’m illiterate too.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
It’s all about perseverance. Use the word enough and you’ll get others using it. Get enough others using it and poof, it becomes a word. Magic.
March 28th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Pardon my edit:
“The Morrissey is that rarest of establishments–an Irish bar outside of Ireland that isn’t brutally tacky and fake.”
March 28th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I’m with Todd on this one. New words are created all the time and if enough people use it, it becomes the norm. The internet has simply accelerated this process.
And for the record, I’d counter a genuine person with a “dishonest” person… or even just “a fake.”
March 28th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I think the word “ingenuine” come from Darren-ben (Darren’s Dialect).
March 28th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Erin McKean, editor of the US Version of the Oxford University Dictionary feels the same as Todd and Michael. She has a project - the dictionary evangelist (http://www.dictionaryevangelist.com/) where she discusses the nature of dictionaries and moving them from static books to living organisms.
I have a short post about her and a link to her Google talk at http://mynameiskate.typepad.com/at_home/2007/03/something_i_lea.html
March 28th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Dude, the opposite of “genuine,” is totally, like, “bogus.”
March 28th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Unreal, I’d say.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Unrelated to the above post, I noticed that you have a Twitter widget on your blog, with the message “Working on a Twitter related project”, and I can’t figure out if you really are working on the project, or if you are simply being ironic.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Kerry Anne: Heh. You’ll just have to wait and see.
March 28th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. Your word “exists” if it appears 19,100 times online. It should be in the next edition.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:18 am
i’m a fan of “not genuine” myself. sure, it’s two words, but it means what you want it too!
still, i like the way the non-word “ingenuine” sounds out loud, though. there’s something about those repeating n sounds that is great.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
i use disingenuous myself. Hm, I wonder how come I’ve never noticed you using “ingenuine” because I would have spoken up :)
March 29th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I’d second disingenuous.
July 1st, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I thought it was a word, too. It ought to be one. Stick it to the man.
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:05 am
It tends to make me think of “ingenious”
Etymology: Middle English ingenyous, from Middle French ingenieus, from Latin ingeniosus, from ingenium natural capacity
1 obsolete : showing or calling for intelligence, aptitude, or discernment
2 : marked by especial aptitude at discovering, inventing, or contriving
3 : marked by originality, resourcefulness, and cleverness in conception or execution
or “ingenue”
Etymology: French ingénue, feminine of ingénu ingenuous, from Latin ingenuus
1 : a naive girl or young woman
2 : the stage role of an ingenue; also : an actress playing such a role
But the word you are looking for is “fake” or “false”. Very old words. Or you could go with “phony”, “deceptive”, “fraudulent”, “counterfeit”, “insincere”, and “hypocritical”.
I was going to say “imaginary” or “fanciful”, but that doesn’t seem to be how you are using it.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Darren,
I found your blog here because of this problem (the ingenuine problem that is). I was writing a post for a new blog I started (it’s a long story)and used the word ingenuine. When I realized that it was not actually a word, I started looking for other words that I could use. Someone told me the “internet” is a good source for this sort of thing. Sure enough, I found you! Thanks for calling attention to this much needed addition to the dictionary!
Hope to make your acquaintance!
Jon
P.S. it may be naive, but that is the first time I have seen the “whisky tango foxtrot” application!! very clever!
January 10th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Surely if we all rallied together to become some sort of cyber angry mob we could create the motion required to have it inducted into the next edition of Websters.
And why stop there?
“Ingenuine” Square on Hollywood Boulevard anyone?
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[…] On a related note, the CBC opted not to specify that Ms. Farquharson was a journalist. For some inexplicable reason, that felt ingenuine (screw you, I’m using it). […]
April 6th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Damn. There I was, writing a fluffy answer to a silly required bit of coursework, hoping to sound mildly articulate when I almost used a word that only exists in the dreams of 19,000 other people. Thank you for helping me save face, Darren. And please, don’t take my gratitude as ingenuine.