- ingenuity
- 1598, "honor, nobility," from L. ingenuitas "condtion of a free-born man, noble-mindedness," from ingenuus (see ingenuous). Etymologically, this word belongs to ingenuous, though it was so constantly confused in meaning with ingenious (q.v.) in 17c. that its form and sense now partake of that word, and with the meaning "capacity for invention or construction" (first attested 1649).